May 1, 2008

Box Score

Baltimore, Md. - In a repeat of a game played just five days ago, Stony Brook and Albany met again in men's lacrosse action, this time in a semi-final game of the America East Championships played at UMBC. Unfortunately for Stony Brook the result was the same as the previous meeting as Albany scored four straight goals in the third to break open a tie game and take a 12-9 win. The loss ended Stony Brook's season with a 7-7 record.

"It's never easy to lose a tournament game like this," said head coach Rick Sowell. "We had our chances to stay in the game with them but just could not convert. But I do feel like we are getting closer to them (Albany), I am looking forward to our next chance against them next season."

Like in the first meeting five days before, Stony Brook got on the board first. Senior Bobby Trenkle (Commack, N.Y.) came around from behind the goal and beat the Albany goalkeeper with a shot four minutes in. Corey Small came back with a pair of goals for the Great Danes in a span of a minute, putting his team on top at the 7:35 mark. A minute and a half later the Seawolves answered when senior Ryan Hughes (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) put in his 16th of the season off an assist from Trenkle.

After Albany had retaken the lead with just 19 seconds left in the first, Stony Brook started the first five minutes of the second quarter with three unanswered goals. Senior Michael Trojanowski (Hicksville, N.Y.) started the streak with a goal at the 12:40 mark and Trenkle ended it two and a half minutes later to give the Seawolves their biggest lead of the game, 5-3. Albany got back within one two minutes later before Mark Cometti scored twice in the final three minutes of the half to send the Danes into the locker room with a 6-5 lead.

A pair of penalties on Albany at the end of the first half gave Stony Brook a man-up opportunity to start the second and the Seawolves converted, with freshman Jordan McBride (New Westminster, British Columbia) scoring his 44th goal of the season just 12 seconds into the second half, to tie the game at 6-6.

That would prove to be as close as Stony Brook would get, however, as Albany scored four straight goals over the remainder of the third quarter, taking a 10-6 lead into the fourth.

Freshman Adam Rand (Niantic, Conn.) won the opening face-off of the final quarter, taking the ball himself and notching his first goal of the season five seconds in to close the gap to three. After the Danes pushed the lead back to four, Stony Brook got a pair of goals just inside the two minute mark, with senior Owen Adams (Norwalk, Conn.) and senior Bo Tripodi (Hauppauge, N.Y.) netting the scores to make it 11-9 with 1:43 left. But Albany put in an empty-net score with 1:05 left to clinch it, making the final 12-9.

Trenkle led Stony Brook with a pair of goals and an assist, with Hughes also netting a pair of goals. Sophomore Steven Waldeck (Levittown, N.Y.) had an outstanding game on defense for the Seawolves, picking up a career-high 11 ground balls.