The men’s lacrosse team continued its hot start to the season, defeating Le Moyne College on the road by a whopping 15-4 margin this past Saturday.
Through the opening month of the season, Saturday’s contest marked the lowest opposing points allowed for the Leopards (3-1 overall).
“I think definitely our defense and our goalie are playing great,” freshman attacker Joshua Heaney said. “A lot of our games have been close. When our offense wasn’t working, they kept us in it.”
The win against Le Moyne (1-1 overall) saw junior goalie Joe Doherty tally nine saves on the affair. Senior defender Cade Kilbride referred to Doherty as a “beast in cage,” kickstarting the Leopards’ defense.
Offensively, the Maroon and White remained sharp, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in the opening period to take control. Heaney cited the team’s ability to attack in transition as a catalyst for offensive success.
“We’re pushing transition very well, D-to-offense, and then attacking when we need to and then pulling it out, using the shot clock and riding on some of our older guys to really lead us,” Heaney said.
After a low-scoring second quarter, the two teams went into halftime with the Maroon and White up 4-1. In the opening minutes of the third quarter, the Leopards and Dolphins traded goals to make it a 5-2 affair.
From then on out, the Leopards dominated the frame, tallying seven straight goals in the quarter. Four of the seven goals came from Heaney and freshman Nicholas Blalock en route to a pair of hat tricks on the game.
“It’s a bright future, but it’s all built on these older guys,” Heaney said. He specifically mentioned seniors attacker Riley Sullivan and midfielder Liam Sargent.
“They led us in the right direction,” he added.
The offensive onslaught continued as the Leopards added three goals in the final frame, the first of which came from Heaney’s third goal of the contest.
“Our teammates are cutting and occupying the defense so that there are no slides, so that all I have to do is beat one guy,” Heaney said. “Anyone on our offense can do that, so that’s really just a testament to our coaches coaching us well and our players cutting off-ball well.”
Blaock reiterated Heaney’s point about off-ball movement.
“In practice, we’ve been working a lot on our off-ball play and how we can open up our teammates,” Blalock said. “I think coming from Air Force till now, our off-ball play has gotten a lot better, and that really helped us out against Le Moyne.”
In addition to the team’s active off-ball movement, Kilbride attributed the team’s success to its 10-man ride, a defensive strategy that pulls the goalie out of the net to defend and create turnovers.
“We always talk about how it’s a lot easier to win when you have more possessions,” Blalock added. “I think with the 10-man ride, it’s one of those things we’re willing to maybe give up a goal or two to get those extra possessions because we feel like they’ll win.”
The Dolphins put up a final goal that hardly made a dent in the Maroon and White 15-4 margin. Despite the dominating victory, Kilbride said that the team was still looking towards key areas of improvement.
“Clearing, riding, those are two big keys of our team,” Kilbride said. “If we improve those, we’ll get a lot better.”
The Leopards return to action in a showdown against No. 5 ranked Army (4-0 overall) to kick off Patriot League play on Saturday.
“We’re not worried,” Heaney said. “They were top 10 in the country last year, and we had a very close game that could have gone either way.”
