On a snowy day in upstate New York, Marist men’s lacrosse secured its first win of the new season today against the Binghamton Bearcats in Vestal, NY by a score of 11-9. Conditions for the first half were wet but the skies opened up in the second half and so did the Red Foxes offense.
After a shaky first half, the offense stepped up scoring eight goals in the second half securing a win.
A big story of the game was senior attackmen Jamison Embury, preseason All MAAC First team was spotted with a brace on his left knee on the sidelines for the Red Foxes.
James Lyons and Vito Muso started right where they left from the last game against the ninth-ranked team in the nation, Rutgers where they lost 13-10. Both Lyons and Muso came out of the gates flying with two early goals for the Red Foxes to make it 2-1 by the end of the first quarter.
Hunter Embury opened up the scoring for the Red Foxes in the second quarter, making it 3-1 Marist with 13:00 minutes left in the quarter.
The Bearcats kept crawling their way back into the game with two goals by Kevin Winkoff and goals from Ethan Insigna and Thomas Greenblatt.
Mathew Keegan with his first collegiate goal for the Bearcats with 3:05 left in the first half making it a 6-
4 advantage for Binghamton. Winkoff had another goal for the Bearcats to make it 7-4 at the half.
Marist had the ball for the last shot, but a turnover derailed their chance to make it a two-goal lead going into the second half. The story of the second quarter was the offense for the Red Foxes only scoring one goal in the second quarter.
Bearcats’ goalie Thomas Dolan from Garden City, New York was on top of his game in the first half for his team. The high-flying Red Foxes offense was held to one goal in the first half due to Dolan’s play in the cage.
To start the second half Jojo Pirreca scores his second goal of the game to cut the Binghamton lead to 7-5 48 seconds into the third quarter. A goal from the Junior attackmen Kellen Pulera narrowed the lead to one for Binghamton at 7-6.
Goals from James Lyons and Joshua Balcarcel tied the game and gave the team the lead with 2:30 left to go in the third quarter. Sophomore Midfielder Joshua Balcarcel scores his first collegiate goal for the Red Foxes making it 8-8 at the end of the third quarter. The only goal let in by Novellano after a stellar third quarter was at the buzzer by attackmen Justin Roderka for Binghamton.
Goals from Pulera and Musso opened up the scoring for the Foxes scoring in back-to-back to back possessions in the fourth quarter. The Red Foxes found the weak spot of Dolan’s early in the fourth and never looked back. But it seemed like the Bearcats were always there knocking at the door, scoring a goal from Daniel MacKinney and drawing contact to make it a man-up situation for Binghamton, but a turnover derailed that momentum, keeping it at a two-goal game.
A pair of four and three-goal runs by the Red Foxes helped propel the team to a victory.
After a shaky second quarter of defense from the Red Foxes, the rest of the way was borderline lockdown. Three ground balls from senior long stick midfielder JT Roselle and redshirt senior defensemen Kyle Stofko helped propel this defense to gain momentum the rest of the way.
The Faceoff X is where Marist struggled to find momentum last game after only winning seven faceoffs in the last game against Rutgers A mixture of Freshman Dylan Bedell and Junior Matt Fermo only combined winning eight out of 22 faceoffs today against Binghamton. The team needs to find a rhythm at the X if they want to continue to win games.
Goalie Anthony Novellano for the Red Foxes looked a little shaky in the second quarter but after that, he was lights out for the Red Foxes. The senior from Long Island recorded 13 saves in the victory.
The top goal scorers for the Red Foxes were three from Pulera, two from Lyons, Musso, and Pirreca. The Bearcats’ top scorer was Winkoff with three.
Pulera really stepped up today in starting for Jamison Embury who was out with a knee injury. If Embury’s injury is lengthy then look for Pulera to have to step up and be that scorer like he was today for the Red Foxes.
Marist to travel down to Virginia to face Richmond on Saturday, February 19 at 11 a.m. on ESPN Plus. Marist lost its only matchup against Richmond 11-9 on February 14th, 2020.
Edited by Jonathan Kinane
Photo from Marist Athletics