Panthers Lacrosse Falls 5-11 to MCLA in Home Opener
- 14 minutes ago
- 5 min read
By Lena Flamm
50 fans gathered on the bleachers of Purchase College Stadium Field on a windy morning for the Purchase Men's lacrosse team's home opener against the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Trailblazers.
The game saw Purchase students eager to watch their team finally play on home turf. Coming off the end of a brutal winter, Purchase’s spring outdoor sports seasons were gearing up to be back in full swing.
The game began with a faceoff between MCLA freshman midfielder Keegan Covello and Panthers Captain Sam Erlich. After a high-octane scramble, the ball was knocked loose and was picked up by Covello. However, MCLA was unable to cash in on the offensive opportunity. For the first four minutes of gameplay, shots went wide and the teams matched each other in clears. But with 11 minutes left in the first, Panther's midfielder Chandler Redwood slung it in for the goal unassisted, electrifying the crowd and hopefully kickstarting a scoring momentum.
In the second faceoff against Covello and Erlich, luck was reversed and the Panthers’ Cameron Savoca was able to scoop up the ground ball. But the play was followed by a turnover by Savoca, then turnovers by MCLA and Purchase consecutively. In the minute after that, MCLA’s Josh Hemstock and Anthony Andolina lit up the board with a pair of back-to-back goals, erasing Purchase’s early lead and setting them on edge. Attacker Davindra Deonarain was able to respond for Purchase and tie the game once again with a fast goal assisted by Ryan Haberski, but just like the previous instance, the Panthers goal was matched with two goals by the Trailblazers, Neal Brierley and Ty Roadcap, concluding the first quarter with the Panthers trailing 2-4.
As play started again, the faceoff against Covello and Soleil Gaines was won by Covello, Panthers goalie TJ Pasqualini made a save against a shot on goal by Andolina, and Purchase successfully cleared and gained possession in the first 13 seconds of the quarter.
From there, it was once again a game of turnovers, though that was only made possible by Pasqualini, who made a crucial save for all four of the Trailblazers’ shots on goal in the next two minutes. Purchase freshman attacker Haberski was then able to cross the field after a successful clear and score in just seven seconds, but for the third time, the Panthers were victims of the same fate. For every goal they scored, MCLA would raise them two, this time courtesy of Brierley and Carson Lewis. At halftime, the Panthers trailed 3-6.
In the third quarter, it appeared whatever had been working for the Panthers offensively was slipping. Because, despite getting three opportunities in the quarter from an extra man on the field- due to slashing by MCLA’s Brierley and slashing and holding by defenseman Mark Mageles, Purchase was unable to take advantage of the two and a half minutes total that they outnumbered the opposing team. The scoring curse was broken, but at a cost. The Trailblazers continued their record of slinging in two goals per quarter, this time only 18 seconds apart, by Andolina, assisted by Brierley, and then by Brierley himself. It was an incredible moment for Brierley, as the junior had yet to score a goal this season until this game, his fourth, where he walked away with a hat trick under his belt. Purchase concluded this quarter with zero goals.
The fourth quarter opened with the Panthers in their most daunting position yet, trailing 3-8 to their opponents with just 15 minutes of play left to eclipse them. While the Panthers were able to keep the ball in the offensive zone for the first several minutes of the quarter, shots on goal by Jordan Thompson and Deonarain went wide and the team lost possession, MCLA’s Hemstock securing his second goal of the game and widening the scoring gap to 3-9.
Once again, while the Panthers succeeded in winning the following faceoff and keeping the ball near the opposing team’s crease for several minutes, they had nothing to show for it, as the five shots on goal in that time, made by Kevon Joseph, Redwood, Haberski, Deonarain and Gaines were all unsuccessful (one high, two wide and two saved by goalie Quentan Polkowski). The Trailblazers cleared, took it downfield and Roadcap scored his second of the game.
The score now 3-10, Panthers Head Coach Jake Fitzgerald called a timeout with nine and a half minutes left of gameplay. As any good coach would believe, a win was still possible, but drastic changes would have to be made. Unfortunately, they had no such luck. Out of the 14 total shots the Panthers made in the fourth quarter, only two were goals, belonging to Zach Scott and Haberski. On the contrary, MCLA made 3 of 7 shots in the fourth quarter (their last goal being Brierley’s fourth of the game), outscoring the Panthers in half the number of shots on goal.
With MCLA’s season record advancing to 2-2, defenseman James Julian was proud of how well his teammates performed. “Definitely our ground balls,” he said when asked about the most crucial moments of the game. “In the past games, we haven’t really dictated the ground ball game. Today, we were getting most of them, and it felt like that was the key… As a team, we’ve been negative before; we’ve really gotten down the past four years I’ve been here. We’ve really gotten into grooves where we were negative defensively and offensively. But today I felt like our spirits were high, our attitudes were good, and we made our mistakes, but we forgot about them, and that’s what kept the game going.”
Panthers captain Erlich was cautiously optimistic despite what some might consider a blowout loss. “I think we did a lot better than last game, some of those things we went over, we were able to master in practice, but they fell short here, so that’s kind of a letdown- but other than that, I see improvement.” As for the biggest mistakes from the game that stood out to him, “catching and passing is a big one for us, knowing where we have to be and communicating.”
Attacker Will D’Ambrosia agreed with Erlich but added, “I think we could have done a better job spacing out the field and just taking our time, and with our clears. I would just focus more on playing as a team and moving the ball as one unit.”
When asked what needs to be going through a player’s mind after getting the ball in the offensive zone. “Just get the ball down to the crease and score.”