A strong final 30 minutes helped the Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team earn it first conference win of the season on Saturday afternoon, as the Seawolves defeated UMBC 12-6.
Junior Brody Eastwood led the way for the Seawolves, finding the back of the net four times during the game, including three times in the second half alone. Senior Mike Rooney also played a big part in the victory, scoring a goal and dishing out six assists.
Stony Brook struggled to find its offense early on in the game. The Seawolves trailed 1-0 with 4:35 remaining in the first period, finally evening the score when junior Challen Rogers finally got SBU on the board. Rogers tied things up with his ninth goal of the season, with junior Chris Hughes getting the helper.
After the goal, Stony Brook still struggled to find its game, as goals from Nate Lewnes and Jack Gannon put UMBC ahead, 3-1. With 13:29 remaining before halftime, the Seawolves would pull closer on the scoreboard thanks to a goal from an unexpected source of offense.
Junior midfielder Frank Lucatuorto, who is more known for his strong faceoff abilities and defensive skills, found the back of the net to pull SBU within one. It was the first goal of the season for Lucatuorto, who had only scored once in his previous 30 contests.
A little over two minutes later, Eastwood scored his first goal of the game to tie things up at three. The contest would remain even going into halftime.
Eastwood opened the scoring in the third, striking wih 9:29 left in the period to give Stony Brook its first lead of the game. Rooney would extend the Seawolves lead to two shortly after, scoring his 20th of the season with 7:42 remaining in the third.
SBU’s lead, however, would be short-lived. Lewnes scored his second goal of the game with 6:55 left in the period. Eight seconds later, Conor Finch tied the game at five.
With time winding down in the third, Eastwood would once again come up big for his team. The junior scored with five seconds left on the clock to give his team a lead heading into the final period.
In the fourth, Stony Brook would take control of the game, scoring the first three goals of the period to take a 9-5 lead.
Sophomore Alex Corpolongo put the Seawolves ahead by two goals, 7-5, when he scored his first of the game and 12th of the season with 8:31 left in regulation time. Then, with 6:41 left, Rogers would score his second of the game, followed by Eastwood’s fourth of the game a little over a minute later.
Lewnes completed his hat trick with 3:27 left on the clock to pull the Retrievers within three. But, the Seawolves would respond with three goals before time expired to put the game officially out of reach.
Sophomore Jeff Reh notched his second of the year to make it a 10-6 contest. Then, Lucatuorto struck again to make it 11-6, giving him the first multi-goal game of his career. Junior Matt Schultz capped off the game’s scoring with his 13th goal of the season. Freshman goalkeeper Brandon Maciejewski made seven saves for Stony Brook on Saturday, and picked up his second win of the season.
The Seawolves were dominant on the draw against UMBC, winning 17-of-22 face-offs in the game. Lucatuorto was 13-of-16 on draws, while sophomore Jay Lindsay won 4-of-6. Stony Brook also had a large advantage in ground
balls in the matchup. SBU had 28 ground balls compared to the Retrievers 18.
The Seawolves now get another week of rest before their next game. After the win SBU is 6-2 overall this season and 1-1 in America East-play. The team does not play again until Saturday, when the Seawolves head to Burlington to take on Vermont.
After that, Stony Brook will be back home for a pair of out-of-conference matchups. They will host out-of-conference foe Quinnipiac on March 31. Then, on April 4, Princeton will make its way to LaValle Stadium to take on the Seawolves.
Joe Galotti
Joe Galotti is a journalism student at Stony Brook University in his senior year. He started writing for The Statesman back in the Fall of 2012, and is now beginning his first year as the paper's Sports Editor. After graduation he hopes to one day be a beat writer in charge of covering a professional sports team.
