Senior midfielder and co-captain Tim Mattiace recorded his first career goal in his last-ever lacrosse game at Binghamton University, assisting the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team in its 9-7 win over UMass Lowell. After starting the season with 11 consecutive losses, the Bearcats (2-11, 2-4) ended the season with two consecutive victories.
“I’m really happy for our seniors to be able to go out with two wins and finish on a high note,” said BU head coach Kevin McKeown.
The Bearcats started the game off with a bang when senior attack Griffin Konen netted a goal less than five minutes into play. This fired up UML junior attack Dylan Rhatigan, as he went on to secure three goals in a matter of five minutes. In the second period, sophomore attack Jackson Rieger and freshman attack Kevin Winkoff were a dynamic duo. Rieger added another goal while Winkoff was able to complete a hat trick. Out of Winkoff’s three goals, two were assisted by Rieger, while the third was assisted by Konen. Mattiace’s goal came at the end of the second period to finish off the half and put the Bearcats in the lead at 6-3.
The third period was only marked by one goal from Konen, but UML (5-9, 2-4 AE) began to fire back in the fourth period. Rhatigan netted another goal, but Konen and Winkoff answered with scores of their own. Konen finished the season with 21 goals, the second highest on the team behind senior midfielder Joe Licata, while Winkoff ended the 2019 campaign with 14.
“Kevin [Winkoff] was great,” McKeown said. “He had back-to-back four-goal games. His ability to shoot the ball has always been there, and for him to end the season like this is awesome.”
Although the River Hawks were facing a five-goal deficit, they did not let up at the end of the game, tallying three more goals until time ran out.
Despite UMass Lowell outshooting Binghamton 43-31, the Bearcats were defensively sound, as the team scooped up 34 ground balls and caused 21 turnovers, while redshirt junior goalie Kevin Carbone recorded nine saves. Mattiace led the team with six ground balls, while sophomore defender Kyle Tiernan paced the Bearcats with two caused turnovers. Tiernan finishes in the No. 2 spot in the America East Conference for caused turnovers, with 24 on the season.
With this being the last game of the season, senior captains Licata and Mattiace will be putting down their sticks, but McKeown said he is proud of the way they led the team and performed. Licata led the team with 22 goals for the season, 12 assists and 10 ground balls, while Mattiace had one goal, 19 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers.
“Tim and Joe did a great job this year,” McKeown said. “They kept everybody focused and they kept everybody working hard, and I think that really showed at the end when we became a little bit of a different team, which can be attributed to their leadership and work ethic.”
Despite only winning two games this season and winning just four the season prior, McKeown is optimistic for next year.
“Not that we’re going to be living off of these two game wins, but I think that it’ll help these guys have a little bit of a better feeling going into next year,” McKeown said.