By Hayden Choate
@ChoateHayden
The Springfield College men’s lacrosse team wrapped their regular season Saturday afternoon with a dominating 26-9 win over Clark.
The Pride had 12 different goal scorers in the game, with five of them having two or more goals. The most important thing Bugbee has stressed all season is that if they play a full 60 minutes, they can compete with anyone. On Saturday, the team played a full 60-minute effort and the score reflected it.
“It was good, it kind of went the way it should go,” Springfield head coach Keith Bugbee said. “I think we’re capable of that. Four quarters, whole game was great, it was fun.”
With the win the Pride finished out the regular season 7-8. Being 4-2 in NEWMAC play, the team is the #3 seed in the NEWMAC tournament taking place next week. After a loss to #2 seed Coast Guard last week, the Pride will head back to New London for a rematch on Wednesday.
On Saturday afternoon, the game began with a defensive standoff by both teams, as the score was 3-2 at the end of the first quarter. Then, Springfield went on a four-goal run and ended up scoring nine goals in the second quarter to lead 12-4 at the half.
“It was great — everyone was eating. We were just sharing the ball nice and well,” junior Riley Burgmyer said. “Anything we shot went in; it was like we were shooting on an empty net. It was great.”
Springfield then came out of the half and scored another nine goals in the third quarter. Grabbing the momentum completely in their favor. The third quarter has been a quarter where the team has struggled this season, so not letting up on Saturday was important for Bugbee and the team.
“What I feel the best about is that we kept it up in the third quarter,” Bugbee said. The third quarter has kind of been a tough quarter for us and I felt like we didn’t really take our foot off the pedal which is good. I think we’ve lost some games here in that quarter. That’s what I addressed at halftime, is if we want to win our league we can’t win in three quarters.”
Zac Schuette had five goals and seven assists, Burgmyer had four goals and three assists and Alek Turi had six goals on the day. Spreading the offense around is key to a high-scoring game and makes this offense dangerous.
“It’s very important because normally when it’s just one person scoring, it’s very easy to scout, but when everyones clicking on the same level, it’s really hard to defend,” Burgmyer said.
Tommy Briscoe, Wilson Smith, Joe Maimone, Jackson Lane, Mason Nocito, Chris Santa Barbara and Dimirti Sanchez all scored for the Pride. Jaiden Gaudet and Aaron Murakami had two goals on the day.
Getting the win headed into the NEWMAC tournament was huge for the team as they were on a two-game losing skid the past couple of weeks. One of those losses was to Coast Guard last Saturday, where they were defeated by the score of 13-9. Now headed into the NEWMAC semifinals, the team is ready for another shot at the Bears.
Photo: Springfield College Athletics