The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team suffered its third straight loss on Saturday, 16-9 to Hobart College. Despite keeping the score close for most of the contest, the Bearcats (1-5) were unable to withstand a six-goal fourth quarter by the Statesmen (4-1).
“I was proud of the way we fought,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “We were right with them and cut it to a one-goal game in the third. Unfortunately, we gave up three quick ones, and we ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth quarter. You can see that in the ground ball disparity. They’re a really good team, and I thought we did some things better today, but not well enough to get the win.”
The Bearcats jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with a goal by freshman midfielder Thomas Greenblatt in the first minute. Greenblatt quickly added to his point total by assisting on a goal scored by freshman midfielder Ryan McBeth 75 seconds later. After a high-scoring first quarter, Binghamton held a 4-3 lead, but that was the last lead the Bearcats would have for the rest of the game.
“[Greenblatt] was awesome today; I thought he did a great job,” McKeown said. “He had a really good sense of the game. He lets things come to him, reading the defense and finding the open guy. We’ve been really impressed with him in his first year and I think the sky’s the limit going forward.”
Though the Statesmen’s offense was kept in check early on, three of their players were able to collect three or more goals by the end of the game. Senior midfielder Justin Scott scored four goals, senior attack Eric Holden scored three goals and junior attack Ryan Archer had three goals of his own. At the end of the game, the Bearcats were outshot 11-6 in the fourth quarter and 45-34 total. Redshirt freshman goalie Teddy Dolan saved 13 shots in the contest. McKeown said his team seemed a little more fatigued by the end of the game than their opposition.
“I think their transition, depth and speed on defense and offense were hard to deal with,” McKeown said. “I feel like especially toward the end their guys looked a little bit fresher than ours.”
Greenblatt finished the day as Binghamton’s top scorer, scoring a hat trick and recording one assist. Sophomore attack Kevin Winkoff also scored twice in the game.
With just one nonconference game remaining before the start of America East play, the Bearcats have a trip to Philadelphia to face Drexel this Saturday.
“I think cleaning up our stick work is the biggest thing,” McKeown said. “We had 18 turnovers, and we felt like a lot of those were unforced where it wasn’t anything they were doing or any pressure they were putting on us — we just threw it at a guy’s feet or threw it out of bounds. We’ve gotta clean that up if we’re going to get into the win column a little bit more.”
The Bearcats will look to win their second game of the season against the Dragons (3-3). Opening faceoff is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 14 from Vidas Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.