UAlbany MLAX Opens America East Play with 20-9 Victory over Vermont
ALBANY, N.Y. – Using a 12-2 surge in a span of two-and-a-half quarters, the UAlbany men’s lacrosse team defeated Vermont 20-9 at John Fallon Field on Saturday to open America East play with a win.
Eight different UAlbany (4-4, 1-0 AE) players earned goals, led by Lyle Thompson, who matched a career-high with five. He added a pair of assists for seven points.
“When we get a lot of players involved in our scoring, it really frees up pressure on our main guys,” said UAlbany head coach Scott Marr. “I was pleased how a lot of players contributed to get the win today.”
“We wanted to get them at our pace to make them play our style,” said Lyle Thompson. “We slowed it down to get a feel for the offense instead of taking a shot right away.”
Miles Thompson had three goals and three assists, while Ryan Feuerstein and Bennett Drake each had a hat trick. Blaze Riorden earned the victory in goal with eight saves and eight goals allowed in just under 56 minutes.
For Vermont (5-4, 0-1 AE), Graham Horvath scored four of the team’s nine goals, while Alex Stanko scored twice off the bench. Keeper Justin Rosenberg got the loss with nine saves and 20 goals allowed in 55:35 of play.
After Ty Thompson scored first for UAlbany, Horvath scored three of the next four goals netted as Vermont took a 3-2 lead with 4:50 left in the first. Miles Thompson and Feuerstein scored towards the end of the period, with Nick Bartlett getting a goal in the closing seconds to tie the game at four after one.
With Connor Russell dominating at the faceoff-X for UAlbany, the Great Danes saw Lyle Thompson, Miles Thompson and Drake scoring in succession to send UAlbany up 7-4 in the second quarter’s opening three minutes. Following a Stanko goal, the home team went on another 3-0 run to close the quarter, sending the advantage to 10-5 going into halftime.
Lyle Thompson added another goal to the run to begin the third quarter with a low shot through the goalie’s legs. Vermont stopped the streak with an Ian MacKay goal to make it 11-6 with 9:02 left in the third.
From there, the UAlbany offense went into high gear, starting with Miles Thompson scoring at the 7:37 mark and setting up Tim Cox a little bit later for another goal. Matt Garziano scored minutes later in a man-down situation, with Lyle Thompson adding two more in the period’s final minutes, making it 16-6 after three quarters.
Garziano scored again 44 seconds into the quarter, with Lyle Thompson and Feuerstein adding scores to complete the run at 8-0, giving UAlbany a 19-6 lead with 7:40 remaining. Vermont scored three goals late, with Drake adding one for the Great Danes as well, as UAlbany held the advantage and took the victory 20-9.
UAlbany will head south to Baltimore on Friday, taking on ranked-foe Johns Hopkins at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
