Baltimore, Md. - The Stony Brook men's lacrosse team's crazy and exciting 2012 season came to an end Sunday as Johns Hopkins defeated the Seawolves, 19-9, at Homewood Field in the first round of the Men's Lacrosse Championship.
Sophomore Matt Bellando (Miami, Fla.) tied a career-high with three goals and set a career-high with four points.Senior Russ Bonanno (Seaford, N.Y.) scored a pair of goals.
Junior Jeff Tundo (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and senior Robbie Campbell (Delta, British Columbia) tallied a goal and two assists.
Junior Sean Brady (Huntington Bay, N.Y.) made nine saves in his final appearance for Stony Brook. "Obviously we didn't want to end the season this way, but we scrapped and fought for each other," Brady said.
Brandon Benn led Johns Hopkins with five goals. Chris Boland added three goals and four assists.
"I'm real proud of this team for fighting through the adversity in a transition year," coach Jim Nagle said. "We weren't quite ready to compete at this level."
Johns Hopkins (12-3) scored three unassisted goals in the first 3:03 of the game. After killing a 30-second penalty, Stony Brook went man-up for an illegal body check. Rooney, one of the nation's leading scorers among freshmen, took a pass from Bellando on the door step and scored his 34th of the season.
Hopkins scored four unanswered and led 7-1 after a quarter.
Play was even for the first half of the second quarter. A save by Brady allowed Stony Brook (7-10) to draw on its longest possession of the game. Campbell found Bellando for the goal to cut the deficit to 7-2. The Seawolves added to the momentum, winning the ensuing draw to set up possession. Campbell found Bonanno, who rifled a shot past Hopkins goalie Pierce Bassett.
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The Blue Jays scored two straight to up its lead to 9-3 before Bonanno dodged the right alley, scoring his 21st of the season.
Hopkins answered with its 10th goal of the game, but Stony Brook answered once more. Tundo had the ball after an unsettled situation and found senior Kyle Belton (Langley, British Columbia) to make it a 10-5 game.
The Blue Jays scored five straight before Bellando's second goal of the game made it 15-6. Tundo added his first of the game just four seconds before the end of the third quarter.
Hopkins led by as many as 11 goals in the fourth quarter.
