The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team earned its fourth win of the season at Canisius on Tuesday, taking the game by an 11-9 margin. For the Bearcats (4-7, 2-2 America East), that win also proved their fourth on the road, as they improve to 4-2 away from the Bearcats Sports Complex.
Starting slow in its conference schedule, BU faced off against the Golden Griffins (2-11, 2-3 Metro Atlantic) for its final non-conference matchup of 2015. After the hosts opened scoring, redshirt freshman attack Sean Gilroy knotted the game up at one at the quarter’s midway point. But the Golden Griffins controlled the rest of the first, scoring two more goals to up the score to 3-1 by the end of the stanza.
From that point on, however, it was all Binghamton. The Bearcats won the opening faceoff in the second frame and cashed in on a goal by senior midfielder J.T. Hauck. Freshman midfielder Austin Macchi won the ensuing faceoff and junior midfielder Johnny Maher was able to find the back of the net just 46 seconds later. BU took the lead with a third quick goal as sophomore midfielder Tyler Deluca scored his 12th of the year and pushed the tally to 4-3. After a Canisius goal to tie it back up, the Bearcats scored their fifth of the evening to head into the half with a 5-4 lead.
“We came out and changed some things up in the second quarter,” BU head coach Scott Nelson said. “We were able to invert the offense, and get it to Tyler Deluca behind, which helped get some good shots.”
Binghamton’s offense stayed hot as it entered the second half. Senior attack Paul O’Donnell scored his team-leading 20th goal of the year just under one minute into the quarter. BU added another goal just 41 seconds later, to make the mark 7-4, after another big faceoff win by Macchi. Macchi finished with 16 faceoff wins, a career high for the freshman.
“For a freshman to come in there and win so many faceoffs like Austin did was huge for us,” Nelson said. “Winning faceoffs helped our offense and gave the defense a rest, which was really important.”
Junior attack Zach Scaduto added his second of the game to give the Bearcats an 8-4 lead with 11:15 remaining in the quarter and O’Donnell then posted his second with 8:37 left to cap off Binghamton’s five-goal run.
Trailing 9-4, Canisius was down, but not out. Senior midfielder Jake Giarrano was able to stop the bleeding in the third, scoring to cut the deficit back to four. The Golden Griffins then netted the first two goals of the fourth to make it only a two-goal game with just over five minutes to go. That remained the closest Canisius would get to the Bearcats, as each team netted an additional two goals before the final buzzer to preserve the margin at 11-9.
With two games to go in the regular season, the Bearcats will have to play their best lacrosse to obtain a higher seed in the America East Tournament. The Bearcats currently sit in fourth, one game back of both Hartford and Stony Brook — their next opponent.
Binghamton is set to face Stony Brook next in its final road game of the season. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York.