The Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team is going to the playoffs.
Following a 13-6 loss at No. 14 Stony Brook (8-3, 4-0 America East), the Bearcats (6-7, 2-2 AE) rebounded and delivered a crucial 10-8 victory over conference opponent Hartford (8-6, 2-2 AE) on Saturday. The win guaranteed the Bearcats a spot in the America East postseason tournament. The win, the team’s fourth straight at home, not only halted a two-game losing streak, but also evened the squad’s conference record at 2-2, extending the Bearcats’ season into the four-team tourney come May.
“It’s huge to get back on the winning track, this puts us in pretty good shape for the playoffs,” interim head coach Kevin McKeown said. “Overall, a great team win across the board, everyone contributed today.”
With the win, McKeown improved to 2-4 since his promotion to head coach in the wake of the sudden resignation of longtime head coach Ed Stephenson.
Leading the way once again for BU was sophomore attack Matt Springer. Springer scored four more goals to record his program-record-tying eighth career hat trick and to run his team-leading season goal total to 26. He has accounted for more than 27 percent of the team’s scoring output, but there might be another stat that better illustrates how much the sophomore means to this team: the Bearcats are 6-2 in games where Springer scores at least two goals.
“Matt played huge, great to get him back on track,” McKeown said. “As he goes, we kind of go. When he gets three or four, the offense is in double digits most often, so it was great to see him get back out there and put up four for us today.”
Supporting Springer in the team effort were senior captains David Raleigh and Frankie Donlon, chipping in one and two goals, respectively. It was Raleigh’s lone goal — a remarkable sharp-angle rip that gave BU a late two-goal lead — that had people talking.
“The defender gave me a little cushion, I was fading away, so I thought why not,” Raleigh said. “I’m surprised it went in but definitely thankful.”
Raleigh’s highlight-reel goal gave the Bearcats a much needed two-goal lead with 8:43 left in a tightly-contested game that saw six ties, five lead changes and a tie score at the end of each of the first three quarters. But in the fourth quarter, after falling behind by one, the Bearcats rallied to score three goals in a two-minute span to seize control of the game, and the defense shut down the Hawks’ attack to close out the win. McKeown praised the efforts of the defense after the game.
“Entering the game, our approach was to not let their dodgers beat us for goals and to slide to them quickly,” McKeown said. “And for the most part we did that; the defense did a great job of limiting looks to the goal.”
Leading the way on defense was senior defenseman Derrick Danieu. Danieu, who ranks 16th nationally in caused turnovers per game with 1.83, wreaked havoc on the Hartford attackmen, causing a game-high five turnovers.
While the win and subsequent playoff berth were feel-good stories for a program that has endured a lot this season, the big loss at the hands of conference powerhouse Stony Brook served notice that the road is only going to get tougher moving forward. The Bearcats are likely looking at a rematch with the Seawolves in the first round of the postseason tournament in the first week of May.
The Bearcats can’t focus all of their attention on the playoffs just yet. They’re scheduled to host University at Albany in their final regular season contest at 7 p.m. Saturday.