Two games, two fourth quarter leads, two one-goal losses.
The math adds up, but the Rensselaer men’s lacrosse team is still struggling to make sense of their fourth quarter failures in Newton, Mass., against Lasell last Wednesday and on Harkness Field, Saturday, versus nationally-ranked Stevens Tech. The answer, however, isn’t hard to find.
In the Lasers’ 6-5 win, Lasell doubled Rensselaer’s shot total in the game’s final session. On Saturday, the Ducks managed to match RPI in shots, but garnered better scoring chances in their 11-10 come-from-behind victory, despite the Red Hawks’ ability to win 50-plus percent of face-offs overall and in each game’s fourth quarter.
Now the math doesn’t add up. The cause for the discrepancy: turnovers. The Red Hawks have averaged over 20 turnovers a game this season and their poor decision making bit them last week.
“Turnovers have killed us all season,” Rensselaer Head Coach Tom Korrie said. “They are simply unacceptable in every phase of the game. These one-goal losses are never easy, but hopefully we will learn we aren’t good enough to win these close games yet.”
Lasell was afforded three to four additional scoring chances due to RPI’s carelessness and ended up taking 36 shots compared to 18 for Rensselaer. This allowed the Lasers to play a very slow methodical game, wear down RPI’s defense, and neutralize the Red Hawks’ offensive weapons in seniors Adam LoGiudice and Chris Sherman.
“Lasell played really well,” Korrie said. “They were quicker to lose balls and that was tough to watch. A part of us just decided to stay on the bus.”
The swings in ball control created a game of runs. Rensselaer got out to the 2-0 advantage when Sherman connected off a LoGiudice pass in the first and did so again early in the second after handling the feed from sophomore Briggs Thompson.
RPI would then go scoreless over the next 21 minutes of play while the Lasers patiently netted four goals in the same span, climbing out to a 4-2 lead.
The powerful shot of Josh Secora would awaken the Red Hawk offense as the freshmen notched a goal after LoGiudice created space and drew the defense. Secora would return the favor five minutes later, finding LoGiudice who fired home the shot just before the third quarter ended.
LoGiudice would score the Red Hawks’ last goal on the first possession of the fourth quarter giving the Red Hawks a 5-4 lead. However, it wouldn’t last as Lasell knotted the score at five on a Louis Lucchetti shot before delivering the game-winner with just 32 seconds remaining on the clock. The Stevens Tech contest was a stark contrast to the Lasell game, except of course for the result. The nation’s 11th-ranked squad came loaded with athletic weapons and was determined to speed up the game and extend the field. RPI, meanwhile, looked more like Lasell, slowing the game down and playing a tight zone around their own net.
“We choose to play the percentages and concede the outside shots,” Korrie said.
And at first it worked well enough, thanks in large part to six phenomenal early saves by Rensselaer’s junior goaltender Ryan Michels. The Ducks only managed four goals in the first half while RPI exploded, finding the net four times in the second quarter alone.
Trailing 3-2 heading into the second, Rensselaer capitalized by patiently stretching out the overly aggressive and larger Stevens defenders. LoGiudice did a great deal of creating and sophomores Alex MacDiarmid and PJ McComb and Secora all benefited from it. MacDiarmid shot from 10 yards out, getting the run started and the Red Hawks just kept coming at the Stevens defense.
McComb’s goal gave RPI the lead after a quick clear by Michels and senior defenseman Matt Curtis got the ball into the Rensselaer offensive zone ahead of the retreating Duck midfielders. Secora would give the Red Hawks a lead 5-3 with a rocket just over the shoulder of Stevens’ goaltender Corey Vaillancourt.
The three quick goals earned Vaillancourt the hook, but new netminder Jack Dunderdale could do little to stop the pressing Red Hawks. After a Stevens’ goal, LoGiudice would make a great individual move after pulling his man deep into the left corner. The captain spun off his defender and came from behind the net, bouncing the ball under Dunderdale with just eight seconds left in the half.
Play would remain back and forth until the fourth where Stevens erupted for five goals due to several costly RPI turnovers which resulted in several easy transition scores for the Ducks. Korrie’s troops, meanwhile, went cold on offense.
“No one was ever in control of this game,” Korrie said. “We knew they were going to score, but we failed to find the cage when it counted.”
Stevens took the game largely on the back of John Dolny who tied the game at eight with 11:16 remaining in the game and assisted on the go-ahead goal. Stevens would push the lead to 10-8 and the Red Hawks would never be able to recover.
Goals by Sherman and sophomore Mike Sampson cut the lead to 10-9 and 11-10, but RPI could not manage to get a quality shot off as time expired.
The one-goal losses have been tough on his team, but Korrie feels this will help reveal his team’s character and build their resolve rather than destroy it.
But Korrie is not concerned about the close losses so long as they teach his team to succeed in the conference.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the conference and we are still in great shape to do that,” Korrie said. “If a loss to Stevens, Ithaca, or Middlebury helps us do that, then so be it.”
The Red Hawks’ determination will certainly be tested this week as a 3-4 (1-0) Red Hawk squad, prepares for a deadly Ithaca team, who beat RPI 15-6 in Troy last year, today on the road, before returning to Harkness Field for a Liberty League game with Hamilton Saturday and a match-up with the nation’s second best team, the Middlebury Panthers, next Tuesday.
