Lacrosse’s Slide Continues

By KEVIN BOILARD

The Eagles’ season hit another road bump last Saturday, March 31, when the St. Mary’s College Seahawks took down the men’s lacrosse team 8-6 to hand them their third loss of the year.

After starting the season off strong with four straight wins, the University of Mary Washington has dropped three of their last six contests to bring their record to 7-3 overall and 2-2 in Capital Athletic Conference play.
The St. Mary’s game started off well for the Eagles. By the end of the first quarter, the Eagles led 2-0 thanks to goals from senior attackman Harry Snyder and sophomore attackman John Bohlinger.

Junior attackman Paul Tunick opened up the scoring in the second frame with a goal at the 13:42 mark. After trading goals with the Seahawks, the Eagles led 4-1, but their effectiveness was tailing off.
The Seahawks turned to ball control and were able to dominate the time of possession for the rest of the game.

“There was no stall in offense,” head coach Kurt Glaeser said after the game. “We couldn’t clear the ball or win a face-off. You can’t play offense when your offense doesn’t have the ball.”

St. Mary’s face-off specialist Albert Mitchell dominated the center X, winning 14 of the 18 face-offs he attempted. By holding on to the ball, the Seahawks were able to pick and chose their shots while the Eagle offense was helpless with their inability to gain possession.

The Eagles’ compact defense had trouble causing turnovers while the St. Mary’s offense was finally getting on track. Although they never went on a quick scoring run, the Seahawks were able to score seven unanswered goals from midway through the second quarter to the 3:53 mark in the fourth.
Seahawk attackman John Dehm and midfielder Will Lerch helped key St. Mary’s offensive run, as each provided two goals during the prolonged stretch of success.

When the Eagles’ defense did make stops, they had trouble getting the ball back to their hungry offense. They were only able to clear the ball successfully 13 times out of 20 attempts.

After being held scoreless for over 36 minutes, the Eagles offense finally scored again. The goal came off the stick of Bohlinger on a man-up opportunity to trim the St. Mary’s lead down to 8-5.
Tunick added another goal for the Eagles before time expired to make it 8-6, but it was too little too late for UMW.

Bohlinger, who had two goals and two assists in the game, notched his 30th point of the season in the defeat (17 goals, 13 assists). Coach Glaeser had high praise for the team’s leading scorer as well as words for where the team’s top offensive threat can still improve.
“He’s good off-ball and he’s a good feeder,” Glaeser said, “But I’d like John [Bohlinger] to be more consistent. He needs to be a better dodger and play with more energy at times.”
Bohlinger described the approach he takes to the game,“I try to be a team player,” Bohlinger said, “I try to do whatever it takes to help my team win.”

The Eagles find themselves tied for fourth in the conference standings with their 2-2 mark, but the loss to St. Mary’s hasn’t jarred Glaeser’s confidence as his team heads into the final weeks of the season.
“If we take care of business, we’ll be fine in conference play,” Glaeser said.