Stony Brook falls short to Marist
Stony Brook's Mike Rooney (1) loses the ball after a hard check by Marist's Gannon Osborn (12) in the second half. (March 3, 2012) Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
Bad news: Stony Brook men's lacrosse is winless in its first three games.
Good news: The trio of non-conference defeats, including a 10-9 loss to visiting Marist Saturday, are meaningless in qualifying for postseason play.
However, the Seawolves aren't very pleased with the early returns.
"That's the only good we can take out of it, that these non-conference games aren't the ones that are going to matter in the long run," said senior midfielder Russ Bonanno, who had two goals and an assist. "Our goal all season is going to be to win the America East championship. Obviously, it would be nice to start out with a few wins. But it is what it is."
Marist (2-0) celebrated as if it had clinched an NCAA berth. That's because to a team from the MAAC, Stony Brook carries the residual cachet of a program coming off two seasons in the national rankings. But the big goal-scorers from those teams have graduated.
"We did lose a lot of firepower on offense," Bonanno said. "It forced us to change our offense. We're still trying to get the hang of it. Because we don't have that individual talent that we did, we need to play a team game and everybody needs to get involved."
The offense was satisfactory, with Robbie Campbell, Nick Watson and Mike Rooney each scoring two goals. But according to first-year coach Jim Nagle, Stony Brook needed to play a smarter game when it came to penalties. Marist had five extra-man opportunities and converted goals on three of those chances.
"I think defensively, we just opened the door for guys all day," he said.
The game-changing penalty came in the fourth period after Rooney's second goal gave Stony Brook a 9-7 lead with 10:29 left.
Marist made it 9-8 on Jack Doherty's tally with 5:55 to play. On the ensuing faceoff, Stony Brook attacker Jeff Tundo aggressively tried to deny possession and his hard hit resulted in a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Connor Rice tied the score at 9 with 4:53 to play and flipped in a pass from Doherty with 36 seconds on the clock for the winning goal.
"Fouling too much, going man-up five times is not an acceptable amount," Nagle said. "Our positioning on the ball was just poor and undisciplined. [Marist] individually isn't better than us but is a better team right now than we are. As we move forward, the league is what we shoot for, but we've got to be a better team if we're going to win any games."
