By Chris Vaccaro
With little significance remaining in its regular season finale other than the Senior Night festivities, the Pride used the game as a final tune-up for the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament.
Junior midfielder John Orsen scored at 12:27 of the fourth quarter to start a 5-0 Pride run in its 11-5 victory this past Saturday at Shuart Stadium against Harvard University.
Orsen’s goal started the chain of events that widened the scoring gap, but it was junior midfielder Tim Treubig’s man-advantage blast that broke a tie at 4 to take a decisive lead in the third quarter.
“The game didn’t present any challenges,” junior defender Brett Moyer said. “It’s just another game on our schedule and it’s something special for the seniors, because it’s their night, their last home game.”
With five wins in its last six outings, the Pride (8-7, 3-2 CAA) has positive momentum at the end of the regular season. These victories will help in its CAA semifinal game against top-seeded University of Delaware. The Pride has the fourth seed in the tournament.
The Crimson (5-7) didn’t start the game with much poise, allowing the Pride to hold possession for the first four minutes.
Pride sophomore Athan Iannucci scored 4:36 into the game off a rebound directly in front of Harvard’s net. After the solid start, the Pride began to slack on defense, allowing Crimson freshmen Zack Widbin and Brooks Scholl to score to take a 2-1 lead.
The Pride took control once again for the duration of the second quarter, as junior attack John Keysor scored off a pass from junior Chris Unterstein in the first minute. No more goals were scored until the last minute of the quarter, when Ianucci scored his second of the game on a spin shot, which was set up by Unterstein. The Pride led, 3-2, at halftime.
In familiar fashion, the Pride continued its surge at the beginning of every quarter. This time in the third, Keysor scored his 18th goal of the season on a running shot.
However, the Pride soon discovered it wasn’t doing enough as Scholl scored again, followed by a Tom Boylan goal for the Crimson, which tied the score at 4.
Iannucci recorded an assist when he found Treubig from inside the box to make it 5-4. Unterstein then helped out with his 14th goal of the year off a pass from Keysor, and the Pride never looked back from there.
While Widbin scored his second of the game for the Crimson in the final minute of the third quarter, the Pride played rock solid defense and crashed the net with every offensive opportunity.
Five different Pride players scored five unanswered goals at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Orsen started the scoring, while Treubig scored his second of the game on a man-up situation. Junior midfielder Rob Bonaguro also scored with the man-advantage for his 14th of the year, sophomore midfielder Bill Peters scored his second of season, and Iannucci ended the scoring with a hat-trick on a man-down drive for his team leading 26th goal of the year.
Iannucci has bolstered a diligent attack unit in the second half of the season.
“Our attack in general has stepped up,” head coach John Danowski said. “Athan has become what we thought he could be.”
The Pride took advantage in crucial stretches, successfully completing all three man-up chances. These successes are a necessity, especially late in the season when everything becomes tighter.
“We place a tremendous emphasis on these situations,” Danowski said. “We must have confidence in our shooting, and come tournament time it is really important.”
Although the Pride was out-shot 33-30, it earned 39 groundballs to the Crimson’s 29.
Junior goalie Matt Southard made 12 saves in his second start since his suspension for violation of University policy in March.
Both sides of the ball are clicking at possibly the best time of the season.
“When we make stops on defense, it gives our offense more chances to score and have possession,” Moyer said when asked if the defensive unit is the catalyst that runs the team. “It’s always good when the offense knows that the defense will make stops.”