By tom.rock@newsday.com
Photo credit: Joseph D. Sullivan |
Jordan McBride was disappointed. He'd just scored three goals with an assist in a 13-6 home win over Binghamton, but the news from around the America East left him wanting.
Albany had lost at home to UMBC, dropping Stony Brook's biggest rival to 0-3 in the conference and eliminating it from tournament contention just a week before the Seawolves would have had their chance to finish them off. "I wanted to knock them out," McBride said.It's about the only thing that hasn't gone perfectly for Stony Brook in the America East during the last two years.
It's been more than a decade since any team has won back-to-back America East titles without losing any games in the conference. But after Saturday night's win, No. 13 Stony Brook appears poised for perennial perfection.
It was the 10th straight conference win for the Seawolves (7-3, 3-0), who last lost an America East game in the 2009 final against UMBC. Their last regular-season loss in conference play was earlier that spring, on March 28, also against UMBC. The only other team ever to win the title unblemished and consecutively was Hofstra, which didn't lose a conference game from 1996-98.
Stony Brook took control with three goals in three minutes at the end of the first quarter, two of them by Kevin Crowley (three goals, two assists). The final in that grouping was a transition goal in which Greg Miceli scooped up a ground ball and hit Crowley for a 5-2 lead.
Binghamton (5-7, 1-2) made it 5-3 on an extra-man goal with 1:02 left in the first but was scoreless for the next 30:23.
While Stony Brook won't be able to deliver the elimination blow to Albany (4-8, 0-3) when they play on Long Island on Saturday, the Seawolves will have something worth playing for. A win and some help would clinch home-field advantage throughout the conference tournament.
"It's good to know," said Russ Bonanno (two goals), noting how important home games are in the conference format, in which teams play Wednesday and Saturday. "It's going to be a good feeling if we get that win and clinch it. It's huge, especially because of the midweek game, to be home and rest and have them come to us."
McBride said Stony Brook is "right where we need to be," having won four straight after midseason losses to Towson and Cornell. They're charging straight into May, when the most important men's lacrosse games are played.
Of course, next week's game has a lot of significance even if Albany has nothing to play for.
"If you talk to the Stony Brook lacrosse alumni, if there's one game that they want to win, it's the Albany game," coach Rick Sowell said. "We don't forget that."
