The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team lost its second contest on the road at Marist on Saturday, 10-8. Despite a tight contest, the Red Foxes (1-1) managed to close out the game with two goals in two minutes to take the victory over the Bearcats for their first home victory of 2016.
Marist started strongly and got on the board with two goals in the first five minutes of the game. Binghamton answered with two goals of its own, both from senior midfielder Zach Scaduto, to tie the game. The Red Foxes would finish the quarter stronger than they started, answering BU’s two-goal run with a three-goal run by senior attack Joseph Radin to give them a 5-2 lead.
“I think they got ahead of us in the first quarter because we had 6 turnovers and we really didn’t play defense,” BU head coach Scott Nelson said. “We made a mistake and took a penalty and they were able to score on a couple man-ups, which was very important.”
But Binghamton did not let Marist faze them early. The Bearcats came right back with the first two goals of the second quarter, both from sophomore attack Thomas McAndrew. Marist added a late goal in the second to enter halftime ahead, 6-4.
Radin was scalding hot in this one, opening scoring in the second half with his sixth goal of the afternoon. Marist took another commanding 8-4 lead midway through the third and never looked back. The Bearcats would cut it as close as 8-7 in the fourth, but after back-to-back goals from sophomore midfielder Gannon Morrison and Radin with his seventh score of the game, the Red Foxes put the game away.
“We let their best player shoot the ball,” Nelson said. “So that was probably part of the reason [for Marist’s victory].”
On the day the Bearcats outshot Marist and dominated at the draw, winning 15 of the game’s 21 face-offs, Binghamton also won the ground ball battle. The killer for the Bearcats was turnovers. They committed 16 turnovers, including six in the opening quarter.
“Turnovers were definitely part of [our struggles],” said Nelson. “We still got to within one with 11 minutes to go but we just couldn’t come through and the guys know that we’ve got to come through in those situations.”
The goalkeeping battle was another key point in this game. Binghamton junior goalie Tanner Cosens made 12 saves on 22 shots, but Marist redshirt sophomore goalie Brian Corrigan was a brick wall in net, stopping 18 of BU’s 26 shots on goal.
“Their goalie played really well and when the goalie plays well its usually a combination of him and us shooting the ball poorly and we really didn’t shoot particularly well,” Nelson said. “We got a lot of great looks but we just couldn’t finish it.”
The main thorn in the side of the Bearcat defense all game long was Radin, who pushed his goal tally to 10 on the season.
“He had a great start to the game; he had four of their first five goals” Nelson said. “We didn’t defend him really well. We didn’t slide to him well. Defense is team defense so the seven guys on that end of the field need to do a better job.”
Despite the result, Binghamton did show growth on the afternoon. After only scoring four goals in its opener, an 11-4 loss to Colgate, Binghamton doubled its scoring at Marist. The Bearcats have had great success at the face-off and on ground balls. Both will be keys for the team’s success throughout the season.
“We’ve got to have a better start to things, the last two games we were down three after the first in both,” said Nelson. “We need to get to double-digit goals on a regular basis, but we are doing better.”
Binghamton’s next matchup is set for Saturday against Hobart College. First face-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. from Boswell Field in Geneva, New York.