Men’s lax shutout by Seawolves

   The fireworks went off as planned following the University at Albany men's lacrosse game Saturday, but they were bittersweet as they colored the night sky after a 15-0 UAlbany loss to Stony Brook.

   The Great Danes' (3-10, AE 2-2) shots were there with the conference-best Seawolves' (9-3, AE 4-0), the only problem was they couldn't find the back of the net against any of Stony Brook's three goalies. One good thing UAlbany can take out of the loss is that they allowed fewer goals each period with exception with the third to fourth as Stony Brook put up three goals in each of them.

  "This is the most disappointed I've been in a while," said senior defenseman Brendan Gleason. "We just didn't execute our game plan. They came out hard, and we didn't have any fight. We didn't cut them back. They scored five in the first quarter and just kept going with it."

   In a game where UAlbany could have forced a three-way tie for first in the conference between itself, Stony Brook and UMBC with a win, the Danes didn't appear to be outplayed in many categories statistically, but Stony Brook's advantage in ground balls (43-26), faceoffs (13-5) and penalties (only three to UAlbany's eight) proved to be enough to blowout the home team.

   "You've got to give it to them. They were playing well," Gleason said. "We made plenty of turnovers we didn't need to make. We were shooting ourselves in the foot the whole time. I think they won the ground-ball war. Everything went their way today, you can't win a game without winning any of those battles."

   The Seawolves were led by senior attack Tom Compitello who tallied seven points on five goals and two assists. Junior Kevin Crowley added three goals and fellow junior Jordan McBride, along with sophomore Robbie Campbell, each added two more goals while sophomores Graham Adams, Kyle Belton and Tyler McCabe closed out Stony Brook's scoring with one goal each.

   Crowley also added three assists to finish the game with six points.

   Seniors Gleason and Dave Brock led the Danes' effort as each of them had six shots in the loss. Fellow seniors Mark Cometti and Kyle Brunk weren't far behind as they each saw four of their shots fail to change the big-red zero on  the scoreboard.

   Arguably the closest UAlbany came to scoring was when Derek Kreuzer found himself wide open on the right side of the net near the seven-minute mark in the third quarter. The junior hesitated, however, as he waited for a sprinting defender to pass and missed the shot around the defender.

   "In lacrosse, it's about runs," Gleason said. "We never really had a chance. We never got that run. We never got that first goal we needed to."

   UAlbany coach Scott Marr was disappointed his team wasn't able to defeat Stony Brook and force the three-way tie and was upset with being a part of his second shutout as a coach.

   "It's tough. We really struggled to generate any kind of offense and just really played poorly defensively," he said. "They took advantage of it. They're very good. They're very skilled. We knew that going in. They just played outstanding. Maybe they played a perfect game. Hopefully we'll see them again."

   Marr said that by the end of the third quarter, with the score already at 12-0, he was wondering how badly the game was going to end up.

   "By the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter, you're just wondering are you going to get a good shot?" he said. "I don't even think we got one. Maybe a couple near the end of the game. [Their goalie] made some really nice saves.

   "I thought we had one in the second quarter. We had a chance on a fast break and the kid makes a great save. Certainly nothing went our way, and everything went their way. It's just one of those games. [We] just have to rebound and get ready for next weekend."

   Now the Danes find themselves in a three-team race for the final spot in the conference championship with Binghamton and Vermont, the latter of which UAlbany defeated earlier this month 9-4. The Danes control their own future, though, because they will face Binghamton Saturday at 7 p.m. on John Fallon Field.

   "The season's definitely not over," Gleason said. "We have a big game [this] Saturday against Binghamton. We win that game and we're in the tournament. [Then] we could be seeing these guys (Stony Brook) hopefully soon."