2008 Woodie Awards
Greyhounds use nine-goal burst to down Red Storm
Dave Lomonico
Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Sports
| |
| |
|
Sports Editor
This much is evident: The St. John's Red Storm are not the Duke Blue Devils.
And thank goodness for that if you're a Loyola team looking to rebound from a 20-8 drubbing, one of the worst losses in school history.
Led by sophomore Cooper MacDonnell's hat trick and a stellar first-half performance, the Greyhounds (3-2, 2-0 ECAC) staved off the Red Storm, 11-8, on Saturday afternoon in Queens, N.Y.
The Hounds' offense came out of hibernation by ripping off nine straight goals, effectively rapping the Red Storm in the mouth before the first half ended. But this is the rough-and-tumble ECAC, where blowouts are a rarity and road victories are a luxury. On top of that, Loyola has not exactly been worthy of a "road warrior" title over the years, and with a young team still searching for consistency, this game didn't figure to be a pushover.
So it wasn't surprising to see flashes of brilliance from the young stars -- MacDonnell scored three, and freshmen Matt Langan and Chris Basler both added two scores - followed by a second-half breakdown that almost led to disaster. It figures to be like this all year for the Greyhounds, the team changing personalities from period to period, half to half, game to game.
"It's hard to sustain that type of energy and drive for four quarters," head coach Charley Toomey said. "Our guys played awful hard for two quarters, but St. John's played with that same type of energy in the second half. We played not to lose in the second half. But in the end we got a win on the road, and we're 2-0 in the ECAC."
Justin O'Donnell opened up the scoring for St. John's with the first of his four goals coming at the 11:41 mark. That's the last goal the Red Storm would get for the next 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the Hounds went to work on keeper Dan Goldberg, peppering him with 19 first-half shots, which led to a 9-1 lead.
Loyola got a gift when a St. John's foul led to a man-up opportunity. Senior Shane Koppens, who has a team-high 10 assists, fed Basler for the tie, and two minutes later MacDonnell gave the Hounds the lead, 2-1. Junior Jimmy Daly followed with a score, and Loyola capped off the first period with a Koppens-to-MacDonnell goal with just 18 ticks left on the clock.
The Greyhounds dominated the X, and spent the better part of the first half in transition. In the initial 30 minutes, senior Tim McDermott and junior Michael Atkinson combined to go 10-of-12 in face-offs, and for the game they were 17-of-23 for an astounding 74-percent success rate.
"Our face-off men were terrific," Toomey said. "And 17-of-23, that's asking an awful lot, and it's impressive. If you give yourself those kinds of opportunities, you're going to have plenty of scoring chances."
Loyola took advantage of those scoring chances, continuing their first-quarter run with a string of five more goals in the second frame. Koppens got things started three minutes in, MacDonnell answered a minute later, and Langan and Basler both picked up tallies. Just for good measure, Basler stuck in the dagger and twisted with a score with just two seconds to go in the half, giving Loyola the momentum and a 9-1 lead.
So what happened in the second half? The defense, which held St. John's without an open look for the entirety of the second quarter, sagged noticeably. The offense stopped being aggressive. They played like they were facing Duke.
"We kind of took their will in the beginning, but [St. John's] is a program with a lot of pride, and we knew they were going to make adjustments," Toomey said. "We got away from sharing the ball and putting the ball in the corners. We had a couple of looks, and we kept going high with our shots, and you've got to shoot consistently for four quarters. It gave them a chance to get back in the game."
Loyola managed just five shots and no clear looks in the third quarter, while the Red Storm slowly whittled the eight-goal deficit down to five, 9-4, setting them up for a fourth-quarter run.
The collapse looked imminent after Tom Michaelsen made it 9-5, but once again Loyola took advantage of a man-up opportunity to stop the run. MacDonnell, on a breakaway down the sideline, spotted freshman Eric Lusby cutting down the crease. The sophomore executed a look-away feed, hitting Lusby for a one-touch goal and, more importantly, a 10-5 lead.
O'Donnell immediately responded with a score, but senior Paul Richards quelled the comeback attempt with Loyola's final goal at the 3:57 mark.
"Our best lacrosse is ahead of us," Toomey said. "St. John's clawed back into the game, and it was a little disappointing, but at the end of the day we got a win on the road … and that's a tough thing to do."
The Hounds return home to face Siena on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. before taking on UMass next Saturday in Amherst.
Be the first to comment on this story