Lacrosse is a game of runs, or so they say. But it would not take much arguing to convince the Rensselaer men’s lacrosse team of such a truism, especially after the Red Hawks found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-0 run in their 10-5 loss St. Lawrence, Saturday at Harkness Field.
With 7:40 remaining in the third period, freshman Briggs Thompson scored his only goal of the game after classmate Josh Begley drew the goaltender and found Thompson alone in front just outside the crease. Thompson’s goal reduced the Saints’ lead to just 4-3 and continued the back-and-forth scoring trend that developed throughout the game. That trend, however, would soon change for the worse for Rensselaer.
One minute and twenty seconds later St. Lawrence’s Andy Centauro snuck behind the Rensselaer defense and received a perfect pass from Brendan Lynch to score what would be the first of six unanswered Saints goals over the next 14 minutes of play. The Saints were led by Alex Moore who scored three goals, one of which occurred during the run, and Pete Glass, who scored both of his two goals over the span.
“They came at us with a run and we didn’t answer the bell,” Rensselaer Head Coach Tom Korrie said. “We dominated in virtually every statistical category except the one that’s most important.” Rensselaer outshot St. Lawrence 40-29, was 14-15 on clear attempts, and won 15-19 face-offs, but was still unable to garner the win.
Another major statistical category the Red Hawks led in was missed opportunities. RPI hit five posts in the first half alone and failed to convert on numerous other scoring chances close to the St. Lawrence net. St. Lawrence goaltender Justin Demuth’s 17 saves did not help matters for RPI.
“We had our chances early, but their goalie came up big,” said Korrie, who is now in his third year as Rensselaer’s head coach. “We lost because of a lack of scoring, not from a lack of effort. But we made poor decisions on shot selection. We took too many shots that were either contested or from well beyond our range. Those are low-percentage shots we can’t have.”
Peter Rice was the only multiple goal scorer on the day for RPI with two markers. Ryan Frisch, PJ McComb, and Thompson had one apiece for the Red Hawks.
While Korrie was pleased with the energy on the offensive side of the field, that could not be the case with his defense, especially during the Saints game-breaking run. The Red Hawks’ defense failed to come up with a stop when needed and, according to Korrie, played very soft. Korrie was particularly disappointed that his defense failed to put a body on the St. Lawrence shooters.
“We really allowed them to dictate the game,” Korrie said. “We displayed no toughness. Anytime you allow someone to come right down Broadway and fail to put a lick on them, it says something. You have to send a message to opponents when they try to attack the net; we sent the wrong message on Saturday. If the game would have continued they would have scored 15 or 20 [goals].”
As St. Lawrence continued to expand their lead across the third and fourth quarters, Rensselaer started to become desperate. Despite winning 80 percent of its faceoffs, RPI failed to control the ball due to turnovers. RPI, who ended the game with 20 miscues, voided the outstanding efforts of Lee Alexanderson, Jon Ellement, and Alex MacDiarmid, and instead allowed the Saints to expand their lead by assaulting a weary RPI defense. Entering the fourth quarter, Rensselaer still only trailed by the manageable margin of 6-3, but committed three consecutive penalties that gave the Saints more quality scoring chances and wasted valuable seconds off the clock.
Korrie admitted that some of the turnovers were created by the severity of the situation. As the Saints began to pull away, Rensselaer attempted to get back into the game by pressing the Saints, on defense and between the restraining lines. However, this strategy backfired as the Red Hawks committed more penalties, turnovers, and left holes in their already struggling defense.
“The turnovers were higher than where we would like them to be,” Korrie conceded. “Some were from people trying to make plays, others were poor decisions. We have to eliminate the ones caused by poor decisions.” Korrie would go on to say he’d rather have his team press and make mistakes, but give a 100 percent effort than sit back and let St. Lawrence take the game.
Despite the tough loss to St. Lawrence, the Red Hawks still have good reason to be upbeat heading into today’s huge matchup with the conference’s first place team, undefeated Skidmore. Should RPI manage to surprise Skidmore in Saratoga and then beat a sub-.500 Union squad in Schenectady, it will win the Liberty League regular season title due to holding tiebreakers over Skidmore and Clarkson. This would allow the Red Hawks to host the conference tournament. RPI can also guarantee a playoff spot with a split, but losing both games would force Rensselaer into a tiebreaker situation, one in which it might not necessarily come out on top.
Of course, finding a way to tame the Thoroughbreds is the key­­—something no one has been able to do in league play this year. Skidmore is 9-2 overall and destroyed Hamilton in Clinton 12-3, a team RPI only defeated 10-9, and knocked off St. Lawrence 11-10 in the North Country.
“It will be a great challenge,” Korrie said of knocking off Skidmore. But he quickly added, “Winning the [Liberty League] regular season title was one of our preseason goals. That goal is in reach. We stumbled a little bit, but hopefully we’ll get tough and step up to the challenge.”
