By Sam MacGilpin
Despite the Springfield College Men’s lacrosse team’s strong start, including eight first-half goals, the Pride lost 13-12 to No. 12 Union College Saturday night on a drenched Stagg Field.
Springfield had multiple leads in the game but were unable to sustain one, failing on numerous man-up situations down the stretch.
Springfield head coach Keith Bugbee noted that his team has improved in every game but knows there’s much more work to do.
“We’re just trying to play 60 minutes. That’s all,” Bugbee said. “I thought today we played about 56 [tonight]. It would’ve been nice to get that win against Nazareth, and if it weren’t for a slow start against Stevens, it would’ve been a different game. I think it’s about starting and finishing.”
Union got on the scoreboard first, but Matt Webb had an isolation shake-off dodge for an easy goal to knot it up at one — and the scoring didn’t stop there. Jake Degnan created separation from a Union defender and scored with 10 seconds left in the shot clock, and 15 seconds later, Long stick midfielder Gavin Carzello sniped a shot in the back of the net after a Jackson Lane scoop.
Nick Stavasano netted a score from a Brady Soldo dot to extend the Pride’s lead to three, but Union quickly responded with a pair of their own. Springfield scored those four goals in as many minutes, and Mason Nocito capped it off as they led 5-3 after one.
Union capitalized again quickly out of the second quarter with two goals, but Zach Barden ran over his defender and pumped one into the goal to take a 6-5 Springfield lead.
The Pride’s defense, led by Toby Olivera, held firm for a good portion of the quarter until Union scored another two goals at the end of the first half. Both Webb and Kevin Tierney had goals where they spun off of their defender as the Pride held an 8-7 lead at the midway point.
Seven of Springfield’s eight goals came from different players, and Bugbee loved the contributions.
“We’re actually doing some cool stuff at the midfield position,” Bugbee said. “We have a ton of guys that rotate through, which has been good for us. We were moving the ball very well, and no one had more than three goals tonight. If one person scores for us, we’ll never be in games.”
Because of a Springfield locked-in penalty, the Garnet Chargers had two goals in the first minute of the second half. Penalties weren’t the Pride’s best friend tonight, as three more penalties followed, and Springfield was quickly down 10-8.
Thankfully for the Pride, Degnan stopped on a dime and froze Union’s defense while sniping one in the bottom left corner to cut the deficit to one.
After six minutes of back-and-forth stops by both teams in the third, an interception by Connor Roberts led to first-year attacker Rory Scanlon putting in the first goal of his Springfield career, tying it up at 10 as the final quarter approached.
For Union, the story of the game was goalie Dan Donahue. Donahue had 15 saves on the night, with a half dozen of them coming in the fourth.
When Bugbee inferred his team played 56 minutes, he was referring to a four minutes worth of man-up opportunities late in the game, where the Pride came away scoreless.
With less than eight minutes to go, Degnan picked up his second hat trick in three games as he ripped a bouncer past Donahue, but Union came right back and extended the lead to 13-11 due to a late slide by the Pride.
“We slid late a couple of times, which cost us,” Bugbee said. “We would’ve liked to stay out of the box, but I thought we improved after the Stevens loss. I liked the zone we played tonight.”
Fighting their way back into the game, Roberts caused a turnover and took it coast-to-coast with a stylistic bouncer, as the Garnet Charges lead was cut to one. With 30 seconds to go, Oliveira forced another turnover, and Bugbee called timeout with 16 seconds remaining.
Webb eventually got a good look but missed wide right, and Soldo tripped with the ball as the clock hit triple zero.
The Pride drop to 0-3 and will play Amherst at home on Wednesday, but Bugbee is still highly optimistic and confident about the remainder of the season.
“We have a lot of good teams in the NEWMAC, but if we play like we did tonight, we can win the NEWMAC. Babson and MIT are some outstanding teams, but we’re right up with them.”