In early March 2006, then-junior midfielder Matt McNamara scored with 2:40 remaining in overtime to beat the eighth-ranked Towson Tigers 7-6, securing not only the largest upset in Binghamton men’s lacrosse history, but in BU athletics history.

In late April, on Senior Day 2007, senior McNamara only took one shot (it missed) and contributed little that was noticeable in the box score in the Bearcats’ 9-8 win over No. 6 Albany, which replaces the Towson game as the biggest win in school history.

Logically, scoring the game-winning goal in an unprecedented upset ‘ McNamara’s performance against the Tigers ‘ would be the best moment of the co-captain’s BU career, which came to an end last night at the AE tournament.

But taking care of the America East rival Great Danes, despite having no scores and no assists ‘ and doing it in front of a packed East Gym Field crowd in his last-ever home game ‘ defeating an Albany team that sat at No. 2 for much of the season; that was what he worked through four seasons for.

‘It was great to get a win with all the seniors; they’ve put in so much hard work in the past four years, it made me happy to see all of us get a win, to go off that field together and set a record,’ McNamara said.

McNamara has been playing lacrosse since he was five years old. A native of Oswego, N.Y., McNamara was recruited by Binghamton, Hobart, Delaware and, wouldn’t you know it, Albany.

‘It was a feeling of immediate comfort,’ he said. ‘Coach [Ed Stephenson] is a great guy, absolute great coach, I could tell that right away. He made me feel very comfortable, he made me feel like I was part of the family, even on my recruiting trip.’

After his freshman year, it seemed McNamara had made the right choice. A 10-6 record and a 6-0 sweep of the AE in the regular season made the Bearcats regular season champions. He dropped a career-high four goals on Wagner. But the best win and the best moment might’ve been over Albany on its Senior Day, 9-8. Just a week later, however, those same Great Danes took care of Binghamton on its turf, 7-4, in the conference final.

A 4-9 record the next season took a little polish off Cinderella’s slippers.

‘It’s something we learned from, and I think from that season on we’ve only looked forward,’ McNamara said. ‘It was a building year; I think we got through that and we’ve only improved since then.’

Last year, his junior campaign would be his only one with seniors above him; the class of 2006 was the only one to have been recruited before McNamara’s.

‘When we came in as freshmen, we didn’t really have any juniors or seniors and we learned the best we could from the sophomores,’ McNamara said.

Beating Towson in 2006 was nice and all, but watching goalkeeper Kevin McKeown, one of those first seniors, get pranked might’ve been better.

‘Kevin McKeown and Buck [Chris] Bernard were kind of in a prank war; Bernard had put eye black all over Kevin’s chin strap on the inside of it and he didn’t know, and he wore it the entire practice; we were all laughing the entire practice because he had no idea, there’s eye black all over his face in the form of a chin strap,’ McNamara said.

The Bearcats also sat on top of the country last year, or at least the Southern Tier, reaching a No. 16 national ranking, also a Binghamton record. But the season would end with a first-round loss to UMBC in the conference tournament.

So here McNamara landed in 2007, a co-captain along with senior defender Tom Wilmot, finishing the regular season with four goals, one assist and his team in third place.

‘You’re a general out there ‘ wherever you are, you’ve got to be the leader on the off-field,’ McNamara said of his role.

The men’s lacrosse program has grown considerably, with a depth and competitiveness that continues to increase, and McNamara can look back on the changes he helped bring around. But, after losing last night in the AE tournament, he won’t have accomplished all that he wanted to.

‘Our goal every year is to win the America East title and make it to the NCAAs, and although I’ve had an awesome career, I’ve made amazing friends, but on the field, until we win that championship and make it to the NCAAs, I don’t think anybody on this team will feel fulfilled.’

It’s all about the team’s successes, and the teammates’, not the personal ones.

‘I was going to ask you if you could do the feature as, like, a tribute to the seniors, with all of them,’ McNamara said in a text message when told Pipe Dream was interested in doing a feature on him. ‘Because I know they have all worked their butt off and I would feel weird doing one alone.’

Selfless, even via T9. That’s how a captain’s supposed to be: that’s Matt McNamara’s legacy.