After a historic run last season in America East play, the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team saw its playoff hopes dashed in the quarterfinal round of the AE playoff. The executioner? UMBC — ending 2014 for BU, 16-10.
So it would only make sense that the Bearcats (2-3, 1-0 AE) started conference play against the very team that knocked them out last spring. And Binghamton dominated in the grudge match, downing the Retrievers (2-4, 0-1 AE), 13-4.
In BU’s second consecutive road game, the hosts got off to a hot start. UMBC took a 2-0 lead just over five minutes in courtesy of a string of BU turnovers and penalties. But minutes later — in the quickest game on two feet — the tide quickly changed in favor of the Bearcats. Following a missed attempt by senior midfielder J.T. Hauck, sophomore midfielder Tyler Deluca finished the job, putting BU on the board, 2-1.
After winning the ensuing face-off, senior attack Paul O’Donnell evened the score for his ninth goal of the season. Taking a second straight face-off, senior attack Tucker Nelson found the back of the net for Binghamton’s go-ahead goal, and BU went from trailing by two to leading by one in 47 seconds.
Not looking back, Binghamton got off two more shots by the end of the first quarter, but earned its fourth goal just over three minutes into the second. Deluca, who ended the day with a game-high four goals, kept the Bearcats’ run alive with his second goal of the day. Less than four minutes later, after a barrage of shots at the UMBC cage, redshirt freshman attack Sean Gilroy found the back of the net to put BU further up, 5-2.
The shootout for the Bearcat offense continued through the second 15, as they outshot the Retrievers, 17-3. On the final shot of the half, junior midfielder George Deignan scored the first goal of his career, allowing BU to take a dominant 6-2 lead into the half.
With the rout already on, the second half was more of the same for the Bearcats. Hauck put in his second of the game after a feed from Gilroy to open up scoring in the third quarter. The Retrievers tried to get back in the game with a goal of their own to balance the contest, 7-3, but a Bearcat scoring frenzy extinguished the effort. In less than 30 seconds, Deluca scored back-to-back goals to put BU up by six heading into the final quarter.
Completing a successful possession by Binghamton, junior midfielder Mitchell Rick scored his first of the game to put BU into double-digits. In the only quarter in which Binghamton was outshot by UMBC, 11-10, the Bearcats poured on three more goals after Rick’s — including two by O’Donnell to complete his hat trick. UMBC managed just one more goal in the quarter on its way to its loss, 13-4.
Along with the huge win, Binghamton outshot its host, 42-23, while holding an advantage in ground balls (31-21) and faceoffs (14-6).
Taking a break from conference play, the Bearcats are set to return home to face Towson on Saturday. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.