Sunday, March 22, 2009

LARSON, HARRINGTON LIGHT UP GOAL IN BULLDOGS' DRAMATIC 15-11 WIN OVER PENN SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Boxscore

SMITHFIELD, R.I. - A 4-1 deficit to open the game wouldn't deter a comeback for the Bryant University men's lacrosse team, as sophomore Matt Larson (Cheshire, Conn.) and freshman Travis Harrington (Vestal, N.Y.) lit up the net with a combined nine goals in the Bulldogs' breakout win over the University of Pennsylvania, 15-11, Sunday afternoon at the Bryant Turf Complex.

Harrington netted a career-high four goals and added a pair of assists to lead the game in points scored while Larson scored five tallies - three of them unassisted - leading five Bryant scorers in the win, four of them recording multi-goal outings.

Freshman Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) also came up huge between the pipes for the Bulldogs, making a number of bigtime stops en route to a career-high 16 saves, anchoring a defense that faced 45 Quaker shots.

Bryant (6-4) got off to a timid start, putting little pressure on an offense that ripped off 14 shots in the opening frame. Craig Andrzejewski opened the scoring for Penn (1-5) at the four-minute mark with an unassisted goal before teammate Terry Kennedy made it 2-0 in the away team's favor with 8:45 to play in the first period.

Larson scored his first tally just over a minute later off a feed from Gary Crowley (Scituate, Mass.) to cut the deficit to just one goal, 2-1, but Andrzejewski answered with back-to-back tallies just 38 seconds apart to get the Penn advantage up to 4-1 with five minutes to play.

Senior attack Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) cut into Penn's lead with 4:21 to play with his first of three goals on the afternoon, turning enough momentum toward the Bulldogs for Larson to send Bryant into the first break with a 4-3 deficit after he scored wraparound goal under heavy pressure with 46 ticks left on the clock.

"When we were down 4-1, we just started to play with a lot of heart," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler. "I was disappointed that we didn't begin the game at that emotional level, but then we became who were are and we became more physical instead of sitting on our heels and watching them play. It was a hard-fought Division I win for the Bulldogs today."

Frosh Tim Clinton (Darien, Conn.) hooked up with longstick middie Anthony Iannello (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) six minutes into the second with a perfect feed from the defensive half, knotting it at 4-4 after Iannello took the ball to the cage for a bounce goal from eight-yards out. And the Bulldogs would never look back.

"Tim is one of our freshman stalwarts in the defensive end," said Pressler. "I thought he played his best game today. We've seen him do it in practice, and it's great to see him perform on game day too."

Harrington scored the go-ahead tally with 7:23 to play before the half and Bryant would never again trail for the remainder of the contest.

"When we went up 5-4 early on, the momentum shifted," said Pressler. "We were taking the play to them and that was the difference. We were more aggressive, more physical, tougher on the loose balls. And that was something we had to do."

But that didn't mean Penn wouldn't make it interesting.

A triple-teamed Max Weisenberg (Long Beach, N.Y.) dished off a quick pass to Harrington in close, allowing the frosh to deposit his second-consecutive goal with 5:42 to go to give Bryant a 6-4 edge before Penn threatened the lead with a goal from Garvey Heiderman.

But Kaufmann answered immediately, making good on a pass across the cage from leading scorer Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.), who started the play by picking up a key contested ground ball near the sideline.

And just as Penn seemed to have gotten the last push before intermission - Drew Collins scored with 45 seconds left - Harrington made it his first career hat trick on an identical goal, again from Greer, to take an 8-6 advantage into the halftime break.

"We were certainly glad we were back in the game, but we knew that we had to come out and regain the momentum that we finished the half with," said Pressler of the feeling at halftime. "They cut it to one twice but we never let them tie the score. I thought that was critical. For our confidence and psyche, that was a very positive thing for us."

A pushing call shortly out of the break on the Bulldogs allowed the Quakers to narrow the lead to one goal for the third time, 8-7, as Alex Weber converted the extra-man opportunity 2:10 into the third session. But the Bulldogs' top scorers of the game connected to bring the advantage back up to two with 9:10 to play when Harrington assisted on Larson's completion of his own hat trick with goal No. 3 on the day.

"Nine goals for those two guys," said Pressler. "Were we planning on that? Absolutely not. But we knew Larson was due for a breakout game soon. I inserted Travis because we needed a little more toughness on offense, to get those goals.

"We scored 11 goals before Zack [Greer] scored his first," added Pressler, "that's a big confidence builder for the guys."

Collins brought Penn's deficit back to one goal, 9-8, minutes later, but Harrington, Larson and Greer exploded for a trio of goals to bridge the third and fourth frames.

But down 12-8 with 13:57 left in the game, the Quakers weren't counting themselves out yet.

Corey Winkoff scored an unassisted goal just 32 seconds before Rob McMullen drew the score to 12-10 with a man-up goal of his own. It would take Collins under a minute to make it three-straight and complete his own hat trick with a goal that brought the game to just one, 12-11, in Bryant's favor.

But the Quakers wouldn't be able to put a stop to the Bulldogs' potent and driven offense, who tacked on three more goals for good measure in the final 10 minutes of the contest, from Greer, Kaufmann and Larson, respectively.

"We kept our composure when they came back and cut it to one and that's something we haven't demonstrated yet," Pressler said. "They made their run, we made ours and we just had a little more in the end."

Despite the 15-11 victory, the Bulldogs were outshot, 45-40, and did not have their usual luxury of possession on every faceoff. Junior Andrew Hennessey (Wading Rive, N.Y.), who has been stellar from the X so far this season, faced his biggest challenge yet in Justin Lynch, and won 14-of-29 opportunities, well below his usual success rate.

"Andrew Hennessey had his toughest battle of the whole year today," said Pressler.

The Bulldogs dominated on ground balls, winning 45 to Penn's 33 but struggled again on turnovers, suffering 26 miscues. Love made 16 saves, outshining the six made by Joe Hegener in the loss.

"Jameson easily could have been our Player of the Game," said Pressler. "He was great between pipes and his clearing game was outstanding. He ignited some of those goals in transition and I think today might have been his best day yet."

The Bulldogs now take their back-to-back wins on the road for their next contest, the last road game of the season, Saturday, March 28 when they take on Lehigh University at 3 p.m.