By Justin Paley
After ending the regular season with three straight losses, the Pride men’s lacrosse team limps into the CAA Tournament against No. 11 Towson on May 5.
The Pride (4-9, 2-3 CAA) traveled to Philadelphia on Saturday to take on CAA opponent Villanova. While the Pride and Wildcats played each other tough, the Pride was not able to play a full 60 minutes as it let Villanova score the last four goals of the game in a 13-10 loss.
Even with the loss, Towson defeated Drexel, allowing the Pride to slip into the CAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed. It will travel to Towson on May 5 for its second meeting with the Tigers this season.
It was another slow start for the Pride as it let the Wildcats leading scorer, Marc Creegan score the first two goals of the game. Creegan finished with a career-high five goals.
Chris Kramer got called for an illegal body check with 6:52 left in the first quarter in the only penalty for either team in the game.
The Pride converted as sophomore attackman Ryan Lucas found the back of the net off a feed from sophomore attackman Chris Unterstein on the extra man opportunity.
Sophomore attackman Ryan Miller scored towards the end of the first quarter to tie the game at two.
In the second quarter, the Pride took control as Unterstein scored his 15 and 16 goals of the year to put the Pride up 4-2 with 6:56 left until halftime.
Villanova’s Eric Heidenberger made it 4-3 a minute later as he put one past Pride sophomore goalie Matt Southard.
Each team scored three goals in the third quarter as the Pride went into the final quarter leading 7-6.
Then the fun began with the two teams exploding for 10 goals in the fourth quarter. Matt Lucas evened up the game at seven just 18 seconds into the fourth quarter. Unterstein scored his third goal of the game just seconds later off a rebound. Sophomore middie John Keysor then put the Pride up 9-7 as he scored on a far side open shot
Wildcats Richie Kratz beat Southard one-on-one to make it 9-8 with 12:58 left in the game. Richie Starker scored to make it 9-9 with 10:05 left in the contest.
Freshman attackman Athan Ianucci scored the final Pride goal at the 5:51 mark to give the Pride back the lead at 10-9.
However, Creegan took control for Villanova, scoring two of the final four goals. Kramer put the nail in the coffin with 39 seconds left in the game.
“I thought they played hard. We did not play well. We don’t play well for 60 minutes. I can’t fault their effort. I think they are trying really hard. But you can’t make up for that lack of experience or lack of poise. Especially in the fourth quarter when you need to be under control,” Pride head coach John Danowski said about his team’s performance against Villanova.
Villanova dominated the stat sheet, out shooting the Pride, 44-34, winning ground balls, 41-38, and face-offs 16-27.
The Pride finished the CAA portion of their schedule with a 2-3 record.
The Pride closed the regular season on Tuesday night by making the trip east to take on Stony Brook in the first ever meeting between the two Division One lacrosse teams on Long Island.
It was never a contest in the between the Pride and Seawolves as the Pride was dominated from start to finish.
Mike Kirschner started things for Stony Brook 4:50 into the game as he scored top-shelf on Southard. Less than two minutes later, Kirschner found George LaFlare for the Seawolves second goal of the game. Another slow start would hurt the Pride.
Danowski called a timeout as he tried to calm his young team down.
Grad student Keith Mekeel scored with 6:12 left in the first quarter to get the Pride on the board.
But 28 seconds later, Larry Cerasi scored to put Stony Brook up 3-1 at the end of the first quarter. The Pride had opportunities to score as it had two extra man opportunities in the first quarter. On the first one, the Pride played very sloppily and continually dropped passes. On the second man-advantage, the Pride got three shots off against Seawolves freshman goalie Brendan Callahan but Callahan stoned the Pride. It would be a reoccurring theme throughout the night as Callahan was extraordinary in goal for the Seawolves, saving 18 shots. Callahan leads the nation in goals against average and saves percentage.
After making one of his six saves on the night, Southard tried to clear the ball, but Rob Bonaguro slipped trying to catch the ball and Stony Brook’s Jamey Lacey found talented Stony Brook sophomore Jason Cappadoro alone in front of an empty net and Cappadoro put it home to give his team a commanding 4-1 lead with 6:04 left in the second quarter.
The Pride got one goal back with 45 seconds left in the first half as Keysor scored to make it 4-2.
Stony Brook took control in the third quarter outscoring the Pride 3-0. First, it was Cappadoro 5:01 in as he went around the cage and dumped one past Southard.
Adam Marksberry scored his 22 goal of the year to keep his goal-scoring streak alive at 14 games while giving Stony Brook a 6-2 lead.
Then LaFlare scored his second of the game to make it 7-2 at end of the third quarter.
It seemed like the Pride might wake up in the fourth quarter as junior middie Ryan Vilar scored 50 seconds in to pull the Pride within four goals at 7-3.
But Pride junior defenseman Jon Edwards got called for a one minute slashing penalty with 7:14 left in the game and Stony Brook’s Matthew Donovan converted on the man-advantage
Vilar scored again with six minutes left in the game but Cappadoro completed the hat trick as he scored an empty netter with four minutes left.
Unterstein, who was stifled by the outstanding Stony Brook defense most of the game, scored two goals about with two minutes left in the game but it was too little too late for the Pride.
Stony Brook fed off the energy of the 3,750 fans in attendance at LaValle Stadium while the Pride seemed to play lifeless most of the game.
The four Pride regular-season wins are it’s fewest since 1992.
Danowski feels his team needs to come together. “The goals we set at the beginning of the season are still available for us-that we’re in the CAA Tournament. It will be a little bit tougher on the road for two games but if we stick together as a team, we can make it happen.”
If Danowski needs to get his team excited, he can show them how Towson’s Ben DeFelice added insult to injury with one second left in the team’s first meeting Apr. 17 when DeFelice scored to make it 10-6.
“I think the guys want another shot at them. I think they thought that after the first game. They’ve got a lot of character and I want to see how they will respond,” Danowski said.
The Pride will certainly have to come out as the aggressors from the get-go and play good defense if it wants to upset Towson in the CAA Semifinals on May 5.