It’s said that opportunity knocks, and for the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team, it knocked plenty in Saturday’s matchup against Hobart. But it was the Statesmen (2-1) who were at the doorstep to answer, edging the Bearcats (0-3) at home, 11-10.
“We played great for 95 percent of the game,” BU head coach Scott Nelson said. “For 5 percent we took some plays off … and that hurt us.”
After winning the game’s opening face-off, the Statesmen got a shot off less than a minute into the contest to give freshman goalkeeper Sam Sanko his first save of the day. After a BU clear, redshirt freshman Sean Gilroy let off a shot from point-blank range for the Bearcat’s first chance of the day — only to be saved by Hobart sophomore goalie, Jackson Brown — in what looked to be shaping into a battle between net minders.
The two squads put up seven more combined shots before senior attackman Brendan Saylor gave the game’s first goal to Hobart with just over six minutes to go in the first. But not to be silenced early, the Bearcats evened the score on their next possession, as senior midfielder J.T. Hauck found the back of the net after a feed from senior attackman Paul O’Donnell. Following two more goals from the Statesmen, BU ended the first 15 with a goal from freshman attackman Ben Kocis to end the stanza trailing, 3-2.
Carrying their momentum into the second period, the Bearcats tied the match at three when senior attackman Tucker Nelson scored his first goal of the day after a Hobart turnover. But it only took Hobart 15 seconds to take the lead back, as the back-and-forth quarter ended with BU on top at half, 6-5.
Despite only leading by one at half, BU dominated Hobart in the game of fundamentals. Binghamton had committed only six turnovers to the Statesmen’s 12, and the Bearcats were successful on 100 percent of their clears while Hobart only posted a completion mark of 64 percent.
“We thought we did everything right,” Scott Nelson said. “We rode them well, they had trouble clearing the ball. We’ve just got to learn how to win. We’re a little young and our senior class is not helping us win just yet, and we’ve got to learn how to do that.”
Helping the cause of the BU seniors to start the second half, Tucker Nelson scored on a dive just over one minute into the third stanza to give BU a two-goal edge. But less than five minutes later, Hobart scored a pair of quick goals to tie the game back at 7-7.
Determined to extinguish the comeback, Nelson found the back of the net for his third time of the day to put Binghamton back ahead. On the ensuing face-off, sophomore midfielder Dan Mazurek took it to the house to reclaim BU’s two-goal advantage in five seconds. But despite the speed of the Bearcat offense on the series, Mazurek’s goal was the last that BU would have in the following 17 minutes.
Scoring on its second man-up opportunity of the day, Hobart scored its following two possessions after a ground ball pickup from senior midfielder Taylor Vanderbeek and another netter from senior attackman Alex Love. By period’s end, the Statesmen turned a 9-7 deficit into a 10-9 lead with 15 minutes to go.
“They got a man-up goal, obviously that hurt us,” coach Nelson said. “I think we fell asleep on Vanderbeek on the lefty dodge.”
Adding to its lead, Hobart scored on its second possession of the quarter to go up, 11-9, with 12 minutes left in the contest. Struggling to find a rhythm after a string of turnovers and missed shots, O’Donnell ended BU’s scoring drought to make it a one-goal game with less than five minutes left in play.
After both teams got two possessions, the ball was back under the Bearcats’ control after a Love turnover. Following a Binghamton timeout, the Bearcats had their final opportunity to tie the game blocked before Hobart held the ball for the next 37 seconds to keep BU winless, 11-10.
With its next contest set to be on the road against University of Delaware this Saturday, coach Nelson hopes that his young team can find its winning edge against a consistently impressive Delaware team.
“We got to learn how to win,” Nelson concluded. “We got to go down to a place with a great tradition … so we’re going to have to go down there and play very, very good lacrosse in order to beat them. So we’ve got a ways to go.”
Face-off is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Delaware Stadium in Newark, Delaware.