Wednesday, March 04, 2009

BRYANT OUTSHOOTS, BUT CAN'T TOP ARMY, FALLS TO BLACK KNIGHTS, 11-5, WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Boxscore

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Despite outshooting Army, 37-34, the Bryant University men's lacrosse team couldn't convert as its fell to the Black Knights, 11-5, snapping its three-game winning streak on a brisk Wednesday evening at Michie Stadium.

Senior captain Bryan Kauffman (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) led the Bulldogs (3-2) with a pair of goals, while junior faceoff specialist Andrew Hennessey (Wading River, N.Y.) won a stellar 17-of-20 from the faceoff on the day.

Army (2-2) got off to a quick 3-0 start, getting goals from three different scorers, including one map-up tally, before Matt Larson (Cheshire, Conn.) netted his fourth of the season with 4:44 to play, unassisted, off a wraparound goal from the right side into left netting to cut Bryant's deficit to 3-1, a score that would stick through the first frame.

A fluky goal from Andrew Maisano - the result of a pass that somehow found net - upped the home team's advantage to 4-1 as turnovers plagued the Bulldogs throughout the first half. The miscues, which would continue through the contest, played a significant role in the loss, as the Bulldogs finished with 24 errors.

Junior Bryant Amitrano (Valley Stream, N.Y.) brought Army's lead back to just two when he picked up a ground ball in front of the Black Knight cage, traveling a bit to the right side before firing off a hard shot for a 4-2 score.

But Army would respond quickly, getting a tally from Jason Peyer less than two minutes later, with 8:38 still to play before the intermission.

The play would go back and forth for the next five minutes before the Black Knights made it 6-2 with 3:10 to play when Jay Laing deposited his first tally of the night.

And with just 63 seconds left before halftime, Bryant attackman Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.) notched his 14th goal of the season, keeping alive a 39-game points-scored streak dating back to March 17, 2007 by netting an unassisted tally from the right side over the shoulder, stickside, of Army goalie Thomas Palesky. The goal made the score 6-3 at the break.

The Bulldogs opened up the second half with back-to-back goals from Kaufmann to narrow the gap to 6-5 in favor of Army. The first tally came with 13:16 to play after Greer picked up a loose ball at midfield, passing it off to Robert Stufano (Garden City, N.Y.), who fed it to Kaufmann across the goal mouth for the tally, while the latter coming after Kaufmann picked the pocket of Palesky for the quick shot and goal.

But the comeback would be shortlived, as Rob McCallion recorded his second goal of the game just 22 seconds later to set off a string of five unanswered Army goals, giving the home side an 11-5 final win.

"Army is a well-coached team," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler. "We clawed back to make it 6-5 and were certainly right back in the game. But every mistake that we made, Army was sharp enough to capitalize on."

Peyer finished the day with four goals to lead all scorers while Palesky collected 17 saves to thwart the Bulldogs. Bryant freshman goalie Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) recorded a career-high 11 saves despite falling to 3-2 with the loss.

"I was very disappointed by our lack of poise on the offensive end," said Pressler, "especially by our veteran guys. Still, I felt this game was much closer than the score showed. And to Army's credit, their kid made 17 saves."

The Bulldogs outworked the Black Knights on the ground, gathering 45 ground balls to Army's 31. Bryant was led by 12 ground balls from Hennessey, who also outplayed Army faceoff specialist Sean Reppard to the tune of 17 faceoff wins to three.

"Am I surprised that Andrew did as well as he did?" said Pressler. "Yes. I expected him to dominate, but not to that level. On the down side, he was the only person in a Bryant uniform today that truly played well. And when that happens, you're gonna get beat."

Bryant also got tougher on the riding game in the second half, keeping the Black Knights to just 12-of-19 clear opportunities in the final 30 minutes after allowing them to go 11-for-11 in the first two frames.

"I think we did a pretty good job on the riding game," said Pressler. "I think we cleared fairly well too. But our marquee players have to make the appropriate plays at the appropriate times, and we didn't do that across the board.

"We've gotta get back to playing fundamental lacrosse," he added. "We didn't play today like we normally practice, and you can't go onto a lacrosse field and make things up and hope to be successful."

But the Bulldogs will not have the luxury of time on their side, as they prepare to hit the road for a nine-day, three-game Spring Break road trip that will take them to Maryland for games against Mount St. Mary's, Loyola (Md.) and the University of Maryland.

"At the end of the day, Army beat us today," Pressler said. "They are a more mature, more experienced group than us, and that part of their game certainly showed today. I told our guys before the game that Army was an NCAA playoff team, and I believe that even more now. But I believe we could have done a much better job overall than we did today.

"We have to get over this quickly as a team," he continued. "We have a couple short days and then we have our third conference game against Mount St. Mary's to start a very, very exciting Spring Break trip."

The Bulldogs take on Mount St. Mary's on Sunday, March 8 at 1:00 p.m. in Emittsburg, Md. before challenging Loyola (Md.) (Tuesday at 3 p.m.) and the University of Maryland (Sunday at 1 p.m.) on the road.