By Chris Vaccaro
It was almost fitting that the Pride men’s lacrosse team ended its season in a game that was close and became out of reach because of a large scoring drive by the opposition.
University of Delaware sophomore attacker Cam Howard scored two goals during a 4-0 Blue Hen run midway through the third quarter last Wednesday in an 8-5 Pride loss during the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament semifinal game at Rullo Stadium in Newark, DE.
The No. 19 ranked Pride (8-8, 3-2 CAA) had trouble gaining any momentum after this lapse in defensive production and was ousted from the CAA Tournament relatively early, while the No. 16 ranked Blue Hens (11-4, 4-1) prevailed in the contest to earn a berth in the title game, an eventual loss to Towson University.
“We encouraged our guys to be patient, possess the ball longer, and get us some better opportunities for quality shots,” Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw said. “We slowed them [Pride] down a little and that was the big difference. Our guys played their hearts out.”
By halftime both teams were playing fundamental lacrosse, leaving the score tied at 3.
Howard, the Blue Hens’ second leading scorer (39 points), then scored 1:50 into the third quarter to take a one goal lead, and again scored to make it 6-3 with 4:13 remaining in the quarter.
At that point the Pride faced possibly the most pressure it had seen all game, but it was still poised from the very beginning.
The Pride scored on a man-up opportunity 1:43 into the contest when junior midfielder John Orsen netted his eighth goal of the season. Junior midfielder Tim Treubig scored while directly in front of the net for the Pride with a little under nine minutes remaining in the first to give the team a 2-0 lead.
It wasn’t long into the second quarter before the Blue Hens came back to tie the score. Senior attacker Andy Hipple scored his 18th goal of the season standing in front at 1:02, and senior middie Joe Trentzsch scored during a man-up chance at 4:22.
Two minutes later, Treubig assisted on a goal from sophomore attacker Athan Iannucci on another man-advantage attempt.
Just when the Pride thought its lead was safe before the half, Blue Hen sophomore middie Dan Deckelbaum scored his 18th goal of the season with 1:30 remaining to tie the score at three each.
Nearly two minutes after Howard’s first goal, Blue Hens freshman attacker Vincent Giordano received a pass from freshman middie John Carrozza to net his 13th tally of the season from 10 yards out.
The game was put out of reach when Delaware junior middie Jarryd Knouse scored his first goal of the year to beat Pride junior goalie Matt Southard, giving his team a commanding 7-3 lead.
Treubig scored again 3:42 into the fourth quarter, but the Blue Hens answered back with a quick goal from Carrozza for his second of the game. Junior attacker John Keysor scored with 37 seconds left to end the Pride’s scoring.
The Pride was out shot 28-24, and had less groundballs with 24 compared to the Delaware’s 28. Southard made 11 saves, while Blue Hen senior goalie Chris Collins recorded 13 for his 11th victory of the season.
Since these teams had played earlier in the season-a game the Pride won 13-3- the Blue Hens were aware of all possible offensive and defensive breakdowns that the Pride might throw at them.
“Their coaches prepared them well,” head coach John Danowski said. “They were extremely disciplined and patient.”
There were two big problems throughout the second half for the Pride: keeping possession and clearing the ball. The Blue Hens did an excellent job at holding the ball for long periods of time, giving the Pride few opportunities to produce any kind of offensive rhythm.
“We weren’t flowing,” Danowski said. “Our biggest problem was the inability to clear the ball.”
Junior defenseman Brett Moyer was adamant about the team playing as a group throughout the year, signifying the motto of “team-first” play. “Everything was a team effort,” said Moyer, when asked if any individuals stepped their game up during crunch time.
While it isn’t likely the Pride will win an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament this season, it should be proud of improving from its 4-10 overall record from last year. The team went through many inconsistent spurts throughout the seasons but still managed to earn the fourth seed in the CAA tournament and had a legitimate shot at making noise in the playoffs.
“The objective of our program is to make the CAA tournament and an appearance in the NCAA’s,” Danowski said. “We didn’t achieve our goals and are extremely disappointed.”