Salisbury cruises past UMW men’s lacrosse 10-20

By ALEXIS ERB

Staff Writer

With two games until the first round of the CAC tournament the University of Mary Washington Men’s lacrosse team brought their game this past Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Salisbury. The Eagles had a great start during the first part of the game with good defense and communication. The first two goals of the game where scored by Shane McKenzie with an assist from Robert Tata on the second goal.Thereafter Salisbury dominated the rest of the first quarter.

There were multiple turnovers of the ball between the first and seconds quarters of the game as well as a couple of faceoffs. During the faceoffs Salisbury would yell to distract the Eagles to prevent concentration and communication to make a goal. However UMW was able to prevail from these conditions on a few occasions.

The second quarter started and only three minutes in the Eagles scored due to the effort of Conor Healy. Salisbury took over for the rest of the quarter until Chris White scored a goal with a minute and six seconds to go with the assistance of Cole Hogan. By the end of the second quarter the score was 4-8 with Salisbury up by three.

During half-time the team conversed about their first two quarters, and warmed back up the last five minutes. As soon as the whistle blew to start the third quarter, the Eagles had a second wind about them. Only a minute and a half in the energy of the eagles drove Owen Digman to score a goal with the help of his fellow teammate Shane McKenzie. The only other goal scored by Mary Washington occured a couple minutes later by Owen with an assist from Chase Kapuscienski. It wouldn’t be until late in the final quarter that the Eagles would score four more goals.

The last goal was shot with one second left in the game by Vinny Smiroldo who couldn’t have done it without Alex Olson. Although the Eagles played with spirit and technique they still weren’t able to pin Salisbury on the field because of their good offensive and defensive strategies, this left the final score at 10-20.

Next week there is a game at Marymount, Drew Delaney the team’s head coach stated some interesting words after the game.

“We need some rest and we need to be able to get our legs back underneath us, and we got an important game against Marymount to ensure us to be in the conference playoffs” stated Coach Delaney.

Coach Delaney also said that they could have done better in the game against Salisbury.

“It comes down to possessions and I think that our wingplay on the faceoffs needs to improve, and I think we have to clear the ball more consistently and handle the ball under pressure.

The goalie Billy Senicola had a tough time out there against Salisbury, but he still fought until the very end and stayed positive. When Senicola was asked how the game could have gone better he gave a positive and upbeat answer.

“Obviously we could have executed better, I thought we prepared well going in, and all we can do is watch film and prepare for Marymount next Saturday” stated Senicola.

Although Mary Washington lost Senicola still had some positive outlook on the game.”It was a four goal game at halftime, and we were able to play a game with one of the best teams in the country it shows that we can play on that level we just have to play a sixty minute game.

Owen Dingman a captain of the team is also being optimistic about next week’s game and it’s results. Dingman also shared what he thinks is the most hard part about the sport lacrosse.

“It’s a game that requires so much physical ability, but in the end you need a lot of finesse and technique it is a combination of a lot of things,” said Dingman. “You have to be physically able to play the game, but you also have to have the skill level to catch the ball and shoot the ball. That’s what I love about it.”