After a momentous win to start the season, the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team hasn’t been able to rediscover the flair that put it over the top, and another slow start dropped the team into a three-game losing skid.
The Bearcats (1-3) fell to the Drexel Dragons (3-1) 12-7 on Saturday at the Bearcats Sports Complex. It was Binghamton’s second straight loss on its home turf, which the team will not play on again until March 30 following a three-game road trip.
Binghamton started slow once again, allowing Drexel to jump out to a 7-2 lead before junior goalie Dan Solazzo was pulled from the net for the Bearcats.
“We started slow, and they came after us, and it’s just taking us too long to get into gear,” said Bearcats head coach Ed Stephenson. “I just thought that in a lot of different phases today we didn’t perform. We didn’t execute. We had good opportunities, a lot, and we’re just not taking advantage of them. It was a very, very frustrating game.”
Freshman netminder Kraig Heston was put into goal, allowing four goals for the remainder of the contest. Sophomore Jordan Marra also saw time in net after an empty-net attempt yielded a Drexel goal.
“[Solazzo] played brilliantly for us all year, made some really big saves,” Stephenson said. “Today he just got off to a little bit of a slow start. We’re fortunate to have three really good goalies. Watching warmups, we thought Heston was the guy to go today, and he did a nice job.”
The Bearcats closed to within four of the Dragons in the second half but could not produce a comeback. Binghamton equaled Drexel’s second-half goal total of four, but the first half was enough to doom the Bearcats.
“We made some adjustments in the second half and got back in it, so that was one bright spot right there,” Stephenson said. “[But] today we really, really didn’t play well. Coming off of a couple games where we were right in it against very good teams, to come out here against another very good team and not show up was disappointing.”
Freshman Matt Springer followed up a six-goal performance with two scores for the Bearcats, giving him 12 tallies over the first four games. He was named America East Rookie of the Week for his effort, and he is currently second in the conference in goals. Last season the highest goal tally on the team was 19, accomplished over 15 games, and Springer seems to be on pace to eclipse that mark.
Fellow freshman Tyler Perrelle added a goal and two assists, while senior attack Jeff Rurey added a goal and assist. Freshman attack Jack Doherty and sophomore faceoff man Jeff Donigan each scored their first goal of the season.
For the Dragons, Kevin Stockel had four goals and an assist, Dennis Adam tallied three goals and Scott Perri added two goals and an assist. Goalie Mark Manos made 13 saves.
“We struggled on the offensive end, we struggled on the defensive end,” Stephenson added. “We pretty much struggled from one end to the other … We didn’t show up for the entire 60 minutes.”
The team’s start is beginning to echo that of the 2009 season in which the Bearcats started the season with a 1-9 record. The Bearcats’ opponents are averaging 2.5 more goals per game, and Binghamton has only converted on four of 18 man-up opportunities. With conference play set to begin in less than a month, Stephenson emphasized that better midfield play would help turn this year around.
“I think they’re playing OK, but OK is not gonna win us a lot of games. I think they’re capable of playing very well; we haven’t seen that yet as a group.”
Stephenson also stressed the players have been making careless mistakes in the early-season matches.
The Bearcats’ next challenge at unbeaten No. 8 Cornell will be the first of a three-game road trip. The Big Red are coming off a 12-11 overtime victory against Army. Binghamton’s first game of last season was against Cornell, a contest that the Bearcats lost at home 18-6.
“We’ve gotta bounce back quick,” Stephenson said. “We’ve got another very good team on Tuesday, a team in the top 10, so we’ve gotta buckle up and get after it.”
The match is set to begin at 4 p.m. at Cornell.