Tuesday, March 31, 2009

BULLDOGS HELD OFF BY NO. 12 BROWN, 11-7, TUESDAY NIGHT AT HOME

Boxscore

SMITHFIELD, R.I. - Despite a near comeback late in the fourth quarter, the Bryant University men's lacrosse team couldn't even the score as No. 12 Brown University held off the Bulldogs for an 11-7 victory Tuesday night at the Bryant Turf Complex.

In front of a record crowd of 1,017, the Bulldogs (7-5) found themselves down, 9-4, with just under eight minutes to play in regulation. Brown attackman Andrew Feinberg had just scored his fourth goal of the game, including three straight to bridge the third and fourth periods, to give the visiting Bears (8-1) what would seem to be a comfortable five-goal advantage with 7:45 on the clock.

But Bryant captain Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.) had other plans. Greer, with a myriad of Brown defenders on his back, carried the ball from the left side into the middle, running past the goal just to turn around, drop down and score as he fell to the ground, tallying not just the Bulldogs' first goal since the midway point of the third frame, but jumpstarting a rally.

"Zack Greer has scored a bunch of goals in his career and I can't remember one more impressive than that one," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler, who coached Greer both at Duke and Bryant. "That was all heart and spectacular skill, and that ignited our team and the crowd and we were coming back."

Just 12 seconds later, sophomore Matt Larson (Cheshire, Conn.) made it 9-6 off a pass from Anthony Iannello (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), made possible by a faceoff win from Andrew Hennessey (Wading River, N.Y.). Hennessey would win 14-of-23 from the faceoff X.

But the momentum wouldn't stop there. In fact, the Bulldogs held onto it for much of the remainder of the game, and Kevin Hoagland (Glastonbury, Conn.) made good on it with 5:20 still to play, scoring Bryant's only man-up goal of the contest after taking a dish from linemate Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) to bring the Bulldogs to within two, 9-7.

"I thought we were coming all the way back," said Pressler. "I've seen that happen. We get those goals from Greer, Larson and Hoagland, and then its 9-7 and here we go."

But while the Bulldogs would continue to get opportunities, the Bryant offense just couldn't get past Brown's all-American senior goalie Jordan Burke.

"He is arguably the top one or two goalies in the country this year and we got 39 shots, but we didn't get enough quality shots," Pressler said. "You have to get closer to the goal against a great goalie and I don't think we did that well enough."

A key turnover on a critical clearing attempt put a halt to the Bulldogs' momentum before a slashing call on Hennessey - the team's sixth foul of the evening - with just 69 seconds left to play forced the Bulldogs to pull rookie goalie Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) out from between the pipes to defend the extra man, allowing a pair of empty-netters for the 11-7 final.

"Our effort and our ability to play hard was there for four quarters," said Pressler. "We kept battling these guys, even when we were down 9-4. With our great faceoff guy, we thought we could come all the way back. But we had a failed clear in a routine play, and that was the turnaround. And they came back and scored.

"Everyone had to play very well for us to win and for the most part we did," he continued. "But Brown is so talented. Give them all the credit - they made the plays when they needed to."

The Bulldogs got off to a careless start to the contest, as unforced errors ran rampant through the game's first 15 minutes, giving Bryant limited possession in the offensive end.

But the defense held strong through the first period, giving up just one goal on 11 Brown shots to enter the second down just 1-0.

In the second session, Bryant came out ready to play its own game. And despite giving up another goal to start the frame, the Bulldogs got back on track quickly, starting with the second goal of the season from Rob Maiorano (Easton, Conn.), who created his own opportunity out of the midfield, picking up a contested ground ball and taking it to the goal for Bryant's first tally of the night with 11:36 to play before the half.

"Rob made a great play, he ran through the defense," said Pressler. "That was a huge goal to get back in the game."

Just over a minute later, Hoagland would send a ball past Burke and into side netting from the left side, assisted by Larson, to knot the game at 2-2.

Feinberg scored a man-up tally that found post and bounced Brown's way to regain a one-goal lead with 8:32 to play before the intermission, but Greer would even the score before the half went final when sophomore midfielder Gary Crowley (Scituate, Mass.) hit him with a pass as he entered the field, allowing the three-time all-American to run the left side for a low shot that found net with 5:30 on the clock. The 3-3 score would stick through halftime.

Coming out of the break, Love came up with one of his biggest saves of the year, stuffing Brown's Kyle Hollingsworth at the edge of the crease for a huge save that kept the score tied at 3-3.

But not for long. Thomas Muldoon scored back-to-back goals and Jack Walsh chipped in another as the Bulldogs found themselves down, 6-3, midway through the third quarter.

An unassisted tally from Larson narrowed the deficit to 6-4 before the Bears' Feinberg scored three straight to move the score to 9-4, setting up the Bulldogs' near comeback.

And while the come-from-behind win wasn't meant to be for the Bulldogs, Pressler knows this was the start to a great rivalry - one the Bulldogs can plan to be more than competitive in for the foreseeable future.

"We were just highly competitive," Pressler said. "Not only did we have desire to win the game, we wanted to make sure that we were competitive in the first game of what should be a long rivalry down the road, and I think it was [competitive].

"We made some mental mistakes and great teams capitalize on mistakes," he added. "We took some fouls and they are one of the best extra-man teams in the nation. And they go 4-for-6 on extra man. We went 1-for-4. To beat Brown, those numbers have to be a lot closer than that."

On the day, Bryant picked up 36 ground balls to Brown's 25, but failed on six of 19 clear attempts. The Bulldogs also continued their struggles with turnovers, committing 21 miscues to Brown's 12.

"We have 21 turnovers, and they have 12," said Pressler. "We continue to be in the 20s in the turnover category and that can't happen against good teams if we expect to be successful."

But Bryant outshot the ranked Bears, 39-33, including a 15-6 edge in the final frame. Love made 11 saves for the Bulldogs, while his Brown counterpart collected nine on the night.

"Jameson played well again," said Pressler. "He had a couple great saves, and a couple he maybe should have had. But he was solid again, very consistent through the first 12 games. He's had an outstanding freshman year for the Bryant Bulldogs."

The Bulldogs now enter into their longest break of the season, taking the next nine days off before returning to the Bryant Turf Complex on April 10 to host fellow Division I transitioner Presbyterian at 7 p.m.