By John Niswander
Senior Writer
The Shoremen men’s lacrosse team returned home last week and earned two non-conference wins against St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Frostburg State University.
“Overall I think the team has performed well. In the three and a half weeks we have been practicing the guys have worked hard to get better every day. We made some mistakes against Washington & Lee earlier in the season which led to the loss, but all of those mistakes are correctable. That has me very positive moving forward,” said Head Coach Jeff Shirk.
Washington College was able to jump on St. Mary’s early in large part to a 6-0 run in the first quarter.
“I think today was a big bounce back win for us. We knew we needed a big win to get us back on our feet. We put the last game behind us and came out today with all cylinders firing,” senior Pat McManus said.
WC was able to add onto their early lead in the second quarter by outscoring the Seahawks 4-2 to take a 10-2 lead into the halftime break.
“Both sides of the ball were clicking today, and that allowed us to put some of the younger guys in and get them game experience,” senior Tim Hickey said.
Junior Casey Grieves was named the Goose Nation TV Shoremen Player of the Game as he finished with five goals and four assists on the day.
Sophomore Cody Pascale and senior Tanner Barbieri scored twice and assisted once each.
Junior Charlie Walker added a goal and three assists, sophomore Cooper Sloan had three assists, junior Kevin Trapp had two goals, and senior Pete Jacobs scored one goal and finished with one assist.
In goal for WC, senior captain Ben Flood made nine saves and allowed three goals in just under 42 minutes of action. Freshman Chris Del Rosario made three saves and allowed just one goal in just under 19 minutes of action.
“Overall, it was a great effort by every single guy on the team. It was clear that everyone was having fun today while getting the win in dominant fashion,” Hickey said.
The Shoremen improved to 25-0 all-time against the Seahawks with the win.
Against Frostburg State, the Shoremen were able to pull away late with a 4-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter to break a 9-9 tie.
Sloan was named the Goose Nation TV Shoremen Player of the Game on the webcast. He finished with a career high eight points with four goals scored and four assists.
Barbieri also scored four goals, while Grieves scored two goals and assisted on two, and senior Tyler Powers scored two goals.
“All across the board, we were making the little fundamental plays that resulted in such a big win,” McManus said.
The Shoremen improved to 3-1, and are back in action next Saturday on the road at Stockton University.
“We expect to improve every time we step on the field and in order to do that we must put in the work every day. I am confident with this group’s dedication to being successful. Thus far they have shown they are not afraid to work which has me excited about our future,” Shirk said.