As far as the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team was concerned last Saturday, the letter “‘V” no longer stood for Vermont. V finally stood for victory.
After drowning in a sea of five straight losses since mid-March, the visiting Bearcats (3-6, 1-2 America East) finally broke the surface for air after defeating the Catamounts 6-5.
The conference win puts Binghamton into fourth place in the America East.
“It was nice, I wouldn’t say pressure’s off. It’s definitely a sigh of relief to get that win,” said junior BU goalkeeper Larry Kline. “Losing’s not very fun, I’ll tell you that much. When you keep racking up the losses it gets even worse, you just got to keep a positive attitude … but the pressure’s still on because we still got to make the AE playoffs.”
The Bearcats reached a four-goal lead in the second quarter; however, by the end of the last quarter, Vermont (4-9, 1-2) only fell one goal short from tying the match.
BU junior midfielder Duncan Streeten had one goal and one assist as six different Bearcats scored. Five of those shots were unanswered.
“A lot of the people are getting some good looks, although we didn’t win against Colgate, I think that was a big stepping stone for us,” Kline said. “It was the first time that we saw in the kids’ eyes that if we needed to score two quick goals at the end of the game we had the confidence to do it. It’s just a confidence builder for everyone.”
The Bearcats started out strong as sophomore midfielder Steven Carlson bulleted one into the net 1 minute, 15 seconds into the game. Vermont’s offense could not penetrate the BU defense and the quarter remained deadlocked until the final two minutes, when sophomore attack Chris Welch put in another for BU.
The Bearcats owned the next quarter firing in three more shots. The Catamounts netted their first goal halfway the quarter as junior attack Andrew Kelleher placed one into the Bearcats’ net. Bearcat sophomore midfield Andy Cook scored a minute before the third ended to make the score 5-1.
Vermont tried to turn the tables on Binghamton in the third quarter with a three-goal tear in 2:11. They kept the Bearcats from scoring until junior midfield Kevin Joy broke through with 6:42 remaining. The Catamounts, who won their last three home games, narrowed the score to 6-4.
“We broke down a little bit, we got away from the fundamentals on defense,” Kline said. “I think we let them control the tempo of the game; they got up and down on us which, when you get into a push run-and-gun, it kind of gets you out of your game plan. I think that’s what happened to us on defense. We got lost a little bit, we tried to hang with them up and down the field and we kept throwing the ball away.”
In the fourth, the Catamounts attempted an encore of what unfolded in the previous quarter, but could produce only one more goal.
“We settled back down in the fourth, though we didn’t put the ball in the net, we got a lot of good looks in the fourth quarter,” Kline said. “When they get their momentum, you have to keep your cool and get some big stops.”
The Bearcats have two more conference games remaining before the America East Conference Championships in May.
Binghamton goes head to head with Stony Brook at the Bearcats Sports Complex at 2 p.m. Saturday for BU’s Senior Day. The Bearcats will then head eastward to face off against Hartford at 1 p.m. on April 26.
“Two huge games for us,” Kline said. “This weekend, it’s our Senior Day. You know we’ve never won an America East Championship in the playoffs before so you know obviously the big first step is getting there and right now we’re not in yet. Every team knows how important these games are.”
Seniors Stephen Smith, Mike Cove, Kevin McCarthy and Jeff Walker will be honored prior to Saturday’s game.