Bulldogs drop shootout to No. 19 Albany

BULLDOGS OUTGUNNED BY NO. 19 ALBANY, 17-15, SATURDAY AT HOME

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — The Bryant University men's lacrosse team scored eight fourth-quarter goals but would fall just short of the comeback against No. 19 Albany at home Saturday afternoon, dropping a 17-15 decision at the Bryant Turf Complex.

The Bulldogs (0-6) could not find a solution for Albany (4-2) junior Miles Thompson, who scored an incredible nine goals for the visitors, while the Great Danes saw 15 of their 17 tallies and 22 of their 27 total points come off the sticks of the Thompson trio. Sophomore Lyle Thompson added a hat trick along with five assists to his brother's nine points, while junior cousin Ty Thompson chipped in three of his own with a pair of helpers.

"They are so clever, so dynamic around the goal," said head coach Mike Pressler. "They are just incredible around the goal, those three."

Bryant was paced by hat tricks from sophomore Shane Morrell (Glen Mills, Pa.) and junior Colin Dunster (Cos Cob, Conn.), who also dished out two assists for five points on the day. Senior captain and starting attack Peter McMahon (Wilton, Conn.) got his offense going as well, doling out five connecting passes for five points of his own.

Bulldog sophomore Kevin Massa (Huntington, N.Y.) picked up an incredible 21 ground balls in the outing, shattering his previous career high of 14 set earlier this season, and bested his top number for faceoffs won in a game with the 24-for-35 (.686) performance at the X, doing his part on offense as well with a goal and two assists to tie his career high with three points.

All three points came in the fourth quarter, while Massa's goal — his first of the season — came with 1:55 left in the contest to close Bryant's margin to 17-15.

"Kevin was incredible," said Pressler. "Down the stretch, he was playing at a higher level then probably we've ever seen him do, this year or last. He struggled in the second quarter, but he adjusted and then went 16-for-19 in the second half with all those ground balls. For him, it was just a great, great performance.

"When a player has a performance like that, you should win, and unfortunately we didn't."

Bryant also saw multigoal games from senior Mason Poli (Downingtown, Pa.) (2 goals, 2 assists) and junior leading scorer Alex Zomerfeld (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) (2 goals), with single scores from junior attack Dan Sipperly (Greenwich, N.Y.), rookie midfielder Collins Gantz (Denver, Colo.), sophomore middie Kevin Rudd (Berwyn, Pa.) and senior defenseman Glenn Maiorano (Easton, Conn.), who notched the first goal of his Bulldog career.

Entering the second half trailing, 8-6, the Bulldogs found themselves in a hole dug solely by Miles Thompson, who singlehandedly outscored his hosts, 5-1, in the third quarter to account for each of Albany's goals in the frame. Each one of them came either unassisted or from family, with three scores assisted by Lyle Thompson and the final off a pass from Ty Thompson.

But the Black and Gold would return the favor to open up the fourth, netting four straight in the opening 2:24, a stretch bookended by Poli tallies that came off a feed from Massa, cutting a 13-7 Great Dane lead down to just two, 13-11, with 12:36 left in regulation.

An unassisted Miles Thompson goal — his final score of the day — with 9:54 remaining and an Eric Cantor man-down tally renewed Albany's four-goal cushion, but Bryant would respond once more, as Dunster completed his second hat trick in as many games just more than two minutes before Gantz got on the board to close the gap to 15-13 with 5:24 showing on the clock.

Lyle Thompson would get back on the board twice in two minutes to negate that momentum, however, and while the Bulldogs got scores from Morrell and Massa in the final 2:06, the home side couldn't complete the comeback or the upset over the nationally ranked Great Danes.

"We never cut it to one, and that was the key," said Pressler. "To really tighten things up in the fourth quarter, we had to get it down to a one-goal game, and we didn't. The eight-goal fourth was incredible, but at the end of the day it comes back to the same thing. We have to shoot the ball better. We've gotten some great opportunities, and we just aren't putting the ball away."

Despite recording a season-high 15 goals, the Bulldogs also fired a whopping 67 shots on the day, outshooting the Great Danes (37 shots) in every quarter. The Black and Gold dominated on the faceoff and in the ground ball game, thanks in large part to Massa, with Bryant picking up 53 ground balls to Albany's 35. However, Bryant capitalized on just two of its eight extra-man opportunities.

"If you had told me we would have 67 shots and lose, I would have told you you were crazy," said Pressler. "But as well as we played on offense to generate those shots, once again we just didn't shot the ball well enough. We missed the cage too many times."

Albany netminder Blaze Riorden made 17 stops between the pipes in the win, while the Bryant duo of Gunnar Waldt (Freeland, Md.) and Tom Carey (New Canaan, Conn.) made five saves in a combined effort.

The Bulldogs return to the field in just three short days, traveling to Cambridge, Mass., to take on regional powerhouse Harvard Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.