Avenging last year’s upset at home, the UAlbany men’s lacrosse team dominated Canisius in Buffalo 26-6, setting a new program record for goals in a game.
Up 2-1 in the first, UAlbany (4-1) rolls off 12-straight goals against Canisius (1-6) and never looked back. The Great Danes scored 17 goals in the second half.
“It feels good to put together a full game, I thought we dominated all phases of the game from the opening whistle,” said UAlbany coach Scott Marr. “It was a total team effort; we are starting to get our legs underneath us!”
The previous goals in a game program record was 25, achieved twice in victories: on March 8th, 2014 at UMass (25-10) and on March 26th, 2005 vs. Hartford (25-9). It is the largest margin of victory for UAlbany since the team defeated Wagner 24-1 on April 30th, 2000.
Lyle Thompson led UAlbany with 10 points, all in the first three quarters and having a goal or assist on the team’s first seven goals. Connor Fields, a Buffalo native, scored four goals and two assists, Seth Oakes finished with four goals and Jake Cullen scored three. In all, 17 Great Danes earned at least one point. Blaze Riorden got the win with four saves in the first three quarters, with JD Colarusso saving two shots in the final period.
For Canisius, Nick Tuttle scored each of the team’s first two goals, with Tim Edwards having a goal and an assist. Alex Govenettio got the loss despite ten saves on 24 shots of goal in the opening 37:10.
After some back and forth play to start, UAlbany got a man-up situation after a slash on Thompson. Thompson found Fields, who took a hard shot and scored on the upper left corner to put UAlbany on the board 4:41 in. Still man-up, Thompson passed to Cullen next to the cage for the point-blank goal. After Canisius scored the other way, UAlbany got another man-up situation. Oakes scored on a second chance shot from Thompson, then Thompson scored one of his own with a hard shot to the upper part of the cage. Thompson added another goal after shaking off a defender, then set up Oakes for the catch and shoot goal.
Into the second quarter, each side fended off the other for the opening six minutes with turnovers and saves. In transition, Thompson shots and scored from AJ Kluck. In the final 2:10, Fields and John Maloney each added scores as UAlbany took a 9-1 lead into the break.
The offense continued to attack into the third quarter, as Connor Russell won faceoffs to keep giving the offense possessions. In order, Bennett Drake scored a goal on a man-up situation, Fields found Oakes for a catch and shoot goal, Derrick Eccles scored from Thompson, Fields fired low and scored, then Kyle McClancy sped from behind the cage and fired hard for the score. Tuttle scored the other way to stop the run for UAlbany, which was 12-0. UAlbany struck back with two point-blank range goals from Drake and Cullen, adding a third in a span of a minute with Russell winning the faceoff, sprinting to the cage, passing to Oakes for the goal. After a Canisius penalty, the ball was passed around from Drake to Cullen for the score. Matthew Bertrams added a long range score, then Fields came from around the cage and scored on a low shot. Each side added a goal before the end of the quarter, with Tim Cox adding UAlbany’s 12th goal of the period, to make it 21-3 going into the final quarter.
With a man-up start to the fourth, Mitch Rupp scored from Justin Reh for UAlbany’s 22nd goal. After a Canisius goal, UAlbany forced a turnover on the defensive end. Kevin McNally came down midfield, finding Tom Nuckel for the shot and score, with Reh adding another goal while being pushed down. Nuckel added another from Ky Tarbell, and following two last two Canisius goals, Rupp added his second for the team’s 26th goal. UAlbany held off Canisius in the final 3:24 to take the 26-6 victory.
UAlbany returns home for a Saturday game against conference foe Hartford on March 21st at 1 p.m. at John Fallon Field.
