LaValle Stadium. It was reacting to the announcement that the university's men's basketball team had been stopped short of an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by a two-point loss to Boston University in the America East championship.
The lacrosse team
empathized, relating it to a one-goal loss to Virginia in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal last season. "Obviously, our athletic department is a very tight-knit community,'' senior midfielder Tom Compitello said. "A bunch of our buddies are on the basketball team.''
As the lacrosse game started, the players knew their basketball counterparts had a seven-point halftime lead. "You hear the score at halftime and think, 'That's great,' "
Compitello said.
The lacrosse team is looking for its own special season. Kevin Crowley (three goals, three assists) and Jordan McBride (three goals) led the way against Delaware, but this is far from a two-man show. Six others scored as sixth-ranked Stony Brook (2-1) beat Delaware (4-3) for the fifth straight time.
Delaware scored first in every period, but that only served to motivate the
Seawolves. After Sean Finegan gave Delaware a 1-0 lead in the first two minutes, Stony Brook scored the next five goals. In rapid order it was Brett Drost, Timmy Trenkle, Russ Bonanno, Crowley and Kyle Belton.
Said McBride: "Our offense is so deep that even if I'm not having a great day, I'm just trying to help those guys out.''
McBride did have a great day, and he had plenty of help. "
Jordan's a phenomenal shooter," said Compitello, who scored twice. "The defense tends to collapse to take his shot away, which opens things up for a guy like myself, Russ Bonanno [two goals], even Kevin. If [McBride's] not having a huge day, he's doing a thousand different things: occupying guys, staying busy, opening up things for other guys.''
The Blue Hens had two
comebacks in the second half, the most serious coming when they scored the first three goals of the fourth period to trim their deficit to 11-9 with 10:22 left.
But
Trenkle fed McBride, Robbie Campbell scored unassisted and Crowley flipped a pass to McBride with 5:16 left to end the scoring.
"They got on that run,'' Stony Brook
goalie Rob Camposa said of Delaware, "but our offense came up with some big goals.''
While there was disappointment for the basketball team, lacrosse hopes to bring home a banner this spring. "We feel we can play with anybody,'' coach Rick
Sowell said. "We're out there working hard to get better. Hopefully, we'll create that opportunity for ourselves where we can prove who is the best come May.''
