Albany Knocks Off UMBC in America East Semifinal
from press release
BALTIMORE— Albany (5-10) scored four
goals in a 1:41 span in the first quarter and never trailed again,
as the third-seeded Great Danes defeated second-seeded UMBC (4-9),
11-7, in the America East Conference semifinals played at UMBC
Stadium.
Albany will advance to the championship game, which will be played
at top-seeded Stony Brook at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
UMBC’s streak of four straight title game appearances came to
an end. The Retrievers had participated in four consecutive NCAA
Men’s Lacrosse tournaments.
Senior attackman Dave Brock led a balanced attack with two goals
and an assist. Sophomore midfielder Jack Reynolds and freshman
midfielder Dwayne Stewart scored two goals apiece.
UMBC was paced by sophomore attackman Rob Grimm, who scored three
goals and added an assist. Senior midfielder Maxx Davis scored a
goal and added two assists and senior attackman Chris Jones
recorded a pair of goals.
Davis put UMBC on the board with an unassisted goal just 2:35 into
the contest, but the Great Danes would score on their first four
shots of the game. Reynolds tied the game on an unassisted goal at
the 4:39 into the quarter and defender Anthony Ostrander ended the
run with his first career goal at the 6:20 mark.
Jones scored back-to-back goals to bring the Retrievers to within
4-3 after one quarter, but Stewart scored a pair of goals and Grimm
only had one response as the visitors went into intermission with a
6-4 advantage.
The Retrievers drought would last over 20 minutes as Albany scored
two unanswered third quarter goals and led, 8-4, after 45
minutes.
Grimm gave the home fans some hope as he converted a Davis feed
2:15 into final quarter. But Albany netminder John Carroll made
five of his 11 saves in the fourth quarter to thwart any UMBC
rally. The Great Danes iced the game with back-to-back scores by
Rocky Bonitatibus and Brock to lead, 10-5, with 5:24 remaining.
Albany held Kyle Wimer, the Retrievers’ leading scorer, and
Matt Latham, its leading goal-scorer off the board in the contest.
Wimer had scored a point in 31 consecutive games, while Latham had
15 goals in five previous career meetings against Albany.
The win by Albany snapped a four-game losing streak to the
Retrievers and the Great Danes improved to 3-2 vs. UMBC in five
postseason meetings.
