Though students may sometimes feel helpless amidst the bumps along the road in the middle of a semester, they find relief when they head home for a break like Binghamton University students just did. It is in those times students realize that no matter what struggles they may encounter while away at school, home provides a haven where they know that everything will be okay.
The recent weeks for the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team have been no different.
Despite encountering struggles of its own on the road recently, including a midseason coaching change, the team returned to Vestal and got back to its winning ways on Saturday with an 8-7 overtime win. BU is now 5-5 (1-0 America East).
The Bearcats traveled to Colgate University on March 15 and jumped out to a 5-2 lead heading into the game’s final quarter.
As quickly as Binghamton took the lead in the third period, Colgate senior Ben McCabe tallied a hat trick in the first seven minutes of the fourth period to pull his team to within one at 6-5. The Raiders trailed by one with 10 minutes remaining and after having multiple shots turned away, they finally slipped one by BU sophomore goalie Kraig Heston to tie the game at six with 3:28 to go.
But sophomore Matt Springer’s fifth and final shot of the game gave Binghamton the lead with two minutes remaining. The Bearcats held on for a 7-6 win, their fourth consecutive.
Binghamton hoped to continue its hot play, but would have to do so without head coach Ed Stephenson, who in his 10th year at the helm resigned on March 19. Kevin McKeown, a former Binghamton All-American in his third year as an assistant coach with the Bearcats, was appointed interim head coach.
The team struggled out of the gate under the new regime and dropped its next two games, the first 10-3 to a Siena squad whose defense ranked fourth in the country and the second following a comeback effort that ran out of gas at Lehigh, 13-7.
Siena jumped ahead to a quick 3-0 lead before Binghamton senior David Raleigh notched his ninth goal of the season to bring his team to within striking distance before the end of the frame.
From there on out it was all Saints as they pulled out a 10-3 victory. The game marked the end of Springer’s consecutive point streak at 21 games. The span had accounted for his entire career at Binghamton.
Against Lehigh the following week it looked like more of the same for the Bearcats as they dug themselves into an early 8-0 hole with under five minutes to go in the first half. Despite its early struggles, BU stormed back and outscored the Mountain Hawks 7-2 to pull within three at 10-7 with 10 minutes remaining in the game. But from there Lehigh rattled off three straight and took the game 13-7 to send Binghamton into conference play losers of two consecutive.
Through three quarters on Saturday at the Bearcats Sports Complex, it looked as if that streak would grow.
Binghamton found itself down 7-3 to the University of Vermont. Similar to the previous game at Lehigh, BU staged a late comeback but this time would not fall short as freshman Brandon Planck knotted the game at seven, sending it into overtime.
But in sudden death the game’s spotlight belonged to two of Binghamton’s sophomores in Heston and Springer.
Just seconds into the golden-goal period Catamount junior Geoff Warley found himself one-on-one with Heston on a breakaway attempt.
This time it was advantage, Heston.
“Kraig made a great effort contesting it,” McKeown said. “He came out and cut some angle down, the kid had to shoot around him.”
Back in their offensive zone, the Bearcats ran what would prove to be the game-winning play capped off by Springer’s 21st goal of the season.
“[It feels] pretty phenomenal,” Springer said after the game. “David [Raleigh] just drove down the side and our play was designed to cut me through. I just hooked back to the ball and he hit me on a perfect pass and I just shot at the net.”
McKeown was extremely pleased with his team’s resiliency after a rough first half.
“The guys did a great job of battling back, it was a great effort in the second half by our defense,” he said. “Then Matt [Springer] and the rest of the offense started finding the net in the second half.”
Especially considering all the team has been through in the past few weeks with Stephenson’s resignation and subsequent slide, Springer noted how important the conference-opener overtime win was to the team.
“It’s a great win,” Springer said. “I can’t say enough about our team and the ability to come back, keep fighting and never give up.”
“We’ve only got five conference games so each one is just huge … We’re glad to be one of the three teams in first,” McKeown added.
The Bearcats will now head to Baltimore to continue conference play as they are set to take on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers on Saturday.
Face-off is scheduled for noon.