Stony Brook, McBride Weather Delaware's Start
by Michael Radano | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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Curtis Dickson had six goals - giving him 30 for the season - but it wasn't enough as No. 15 Stony Brook knocked off No. 14 Delaware 16-12. © Kevin P. Tucker |
NEWARK, Del. - Down by three goals after just
one period of play, Stony Brook needed a spark to counter a
Delaware attack that looked unstoppable for 15 minutes.
That spark came from of three distinct aspects of the game as
Delaware’s Matt Stefurak penalty early in second period
halted the Blue Hens' momentum, a goal 25 seconds later by Stony
Brook’s Jordan McBride got it going in the other direction
and from that point the game was in the hands of junior midfielder
Adam Rand.
Rand played the role of unsung hero as Stony Brook, ranked 15th in
the latest USILA Top 25, beat host and 14th ranked Delaware 16-12
at Delaware Stadium. Played in just the latest “Storm of the
Century” to hit the region, both teams battled the elements
as well as each other. In the end, Stony Brook got the better of
the afternoon behind McBride’s game-high seven goals.
Billed as a match up of high-powered offenses, Delaware’s
Curtis Dickson countered with six goals of his own giving him 30
for the season, but this game was lost in the second period as the
Seawolves went on a 9-2 run in large part due to better work on
ground balls and control of the 12 face-offs.
“It was just an all-out battle,” said Rand, who won
10-of-15 first half faceoffs including 8-of-9 in the second period.
“Tommy Lee and Dan Cooney are two of the best at faceoffs
around. I knew coming into the game that these two guys are
probably the quickest I’m going to see all year. It all came
down to timing and a lot of the time it came out to stalemates
which ate up time once we got the lead.”
“It’s a confidence thing sometimes,” said Lee,
who admitted to jumping early a few times and then trying to
overcome that mental hurdle. “(Rand) is so good that any
advantage he has, it’s tough to overcome. Once you jump early
the first time, you start guessing. It was tough, it’s always
tough against a top faceoff guy but it just made it tougher when
you don’t have the momentum. It’s second guessing
instead of doing your won thing.”
Down 4-1 after the first period, Stony Brook (3-1) got things
going when McBride scored his first goal of the afternoon at the
9:48 mark. Stony Brook’s Kevin Crowley won the faceoff and
Robbie Campbell scored at the 9:45 mark to close Delaware’s
(4-2) lead to just one goal.
That pattern took hold as McBride scored the next three goals, the
last at 5:55 to give the Seawolves the lead for good at 6-4.
“I think our offense wasn’t communicating very well in
the first period,” McBride said. “They kind of shortied
one of our attackers and we weren’t used to that. We changed
our offensive plan and once we scored, 4-2 is much different than
4-1.
“Faceoffs were a big deal and so was fighting for those
loose balls. I think that’s the key to this game.”
“I just think that 4-1 deficit coming out was them at home
and we anticipated them coming out and fighting,” Stony Brook
head coach Rick Sowell said. “Really, we turned it in the
second quarter and the penalty helped and was huge. We
weren’t doing much offensively, the goal loosened us up and
that was a great battle at the faceoff X today. They jumped a
couple of times and that certainly changed things for us as
well.”
