Stony Brook loses to Albany in men's lacrosse, 21-12
Stony Brook's Brody Eastwood shoots and scores against Siena goalie Matt Sharp. (March 5, 2013) Credit: George A. Faella
The Stony Brook men's lacrosse team lost to No. 10 Albany, 21-12, in the regular-season finale for both Saturday night at LaValle Stadium -- and now will host the Great Danes again in an America East Tournament semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Stony Brook, which had beaten Albany seven straight times, clinched a berth in the tournament earlier in the day when UMBC beat Binghamton. Albany is seeded first, Hartford second, UMBC third and SBU fourth in the tournament.
Freshman Brody Eastwood recorded his ninth career hat trick for Stony Brook (7-8, 2-3). Freshman Challen Rogers set a career high with four assists and tied a career high with six points. Jeff Tundo added two goals and an assist.
Miles Thompson led Albany (11-4, 5-0) with five goals and nine assists. The 21 goals were the most given up by Stony Brook since No. 2 Virginia scored 20 in 2009. Stony Brook has scored at least 10 goals in each of the last six games but is 2-4 in that span.
"Tonight our youth showed,'' said SBU coach Jim Nagle, who saw freshmen score eight of his team's 12 goals. "All in all, I'm pleased to be in the conference tournament. Albany is a good team, and we'll go back and look at ways of getting better. We have a tendency to play tight, but at the end of the day, we're going to the conference tournament, and that's what matters most.''
Goals by Eastwood and sophomore Alex Harris cut Albany's lead to 8-4 with 3:50 left in the second quarter, but the Great Danes outscored the Seawolves 8-2 in the next 15 minutes to take a 16-6 lead. John Maloney's goal gave Albany its biggest lead at 21-10 with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter.
