St. John's rallies to beat Stony Brook

Last week's upset over No. 18 Delaware was supposed to be the turning point for a Stony Brook men's lacrosse team that had kicked off its season with three straight losses, but if yesterday's fit-inducing fourth quarter against St. John's is any indication, there's still plenty of work to be done.

Charlie Holenstein scored from 15 yards on a feed from Kevin Cernuto and Connetquot's Kiernan McArdle cashed in about four minutes later on a groundball in front of the net to give St. John's the lead with 6:12 to go, as the Red Storm (3-2) scored four times in the final period to defeat Stony Brook, 11-9, at LaValle Stadium.

"We're still working through some early season stuff and . . . I thought we were coming together as a team last week," coach Jim Nagle said. "We weren't ready to beat them tonight. It's going to take a little longer to get it done."

With the score tied at 6, Stony Brook controlled play for the last half of the third period, scoring on Russ Bonanno's go-ahead goal with 2:17 to go, a point sparked by Robbie Campbell's forced turnover. The Seawolves maintained possession for nearly four minutes until St. John's cleared with 1:15 to go.

Stony Brook was unable to stop McArdle, who finished with four goals, including a flick from behind the cage to tie the score at 7 with five seconds left in the third. Stony Brook would tie it at 8 on Jeff Tundo's score, before Holenstein and McArdle's back-to-back goals at 10:46 and 6:12 sealed the game. McArdle's goal came on a deflection in front of the crease on a save from Sean Brady (14).

Bonanno, who finished with a team-high three goals, said: "It's good we're in the middle of the season and we have game after game. We still have our eyes on the goal in the America East."