The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

Red Storm lacrosse falters in penultimate ECAC game

One week after picking up an elusive first win of the season, St. John’s lacrosse woes were back on Saturday when they were routed by ECAC opponent Hobart, 17-7.

Although they were overshadowed by Hobart’s offensive battering, seven different Johnnies contributed on scoring plays. Senior Rob Gannon scored twice and added an assist. Junior midfielder Malcolm Miles also found the net twice, and freshman Terrence Leach recorded his first career goal.

Despite last week’s impressive win, head coach Jason Miller explained why the team’s play at Hobart had him
frustrated.

“We got out-hustled,” said Miller. “I thought they played a lot harder than we played. Overall, I can’t hide the fact that it was a pretty disappointing effort across the board. They had a lot more enthusiasm than we had. They outworked us for the majority of the game and that’s why the score was the way it was.”

The score was in the Statesmen’s favor, throughout the game. After six unanswered goals by Hobart to open the game, the closest St. John’s would ever come to tying the game was a five-goal deficit.

“Their quick start played a lot into shaping the whole game,” said Miller. “We never really got comfortable in the offensive end or at the defensive end of the field.”

After Jack Rosson won the opening faceoff, St. John’s wasted some shots before turning the ball over to the Statesmen who promptly got on the board. Hobart maintained possession for the majority of the first quarter, netting another before time expired. Sophomore goalie Gavin Buckley, saw a lot of early action in his fifth start of the season he came up with five big saves in the first to keep the Red Storm’s deficit at two.

However, Buckley would not be so successful for the rest of the game. Hobart’s 17 goals was the most scored against the Storm all season.

“[Buckley] saw a lot more shots this week,” Miller said. “He got off to a good start and had a couple good saves early. Eventually he just saw so much rubber that he broke down at the end.”

The second quarter began with an immediate goal from Hobart’s Kevin Curtin. This sparked the Hobart rally that left St. John’s down 6-0.

Eventually, Tom Michaelsen fed the ball to Garrett Mitchell, who got the Johnnies on the board with his fourth goal of the season. After the Statesmen responded with two more goals, there were 22 seconds left in the half.

Feeling the urgency, Rosson won the ensuing faceoff, and the Storm got a quick goal from Rob Gannon. Rosson won the next faceoff with eight seconds left and again got the ball to Gannon, whose shot was this time rejected by Hobart’s goalie as the halftime horn sounded.

Up 8-2 at the start of the third, Hobart held possession and slipped one by Buckley. Rosson won the next two at the X, leading to consecutive goals from Gannon and Justin O’Donnell, St. John’s points leader.

Hobart answered with a three goal rally, two of which came on man-up opportunities. Penalties and fouls plagued the Red Storm throughout out the game.

“It was a struggle from a momentum standpoint,” said Coach Miller. “At the point in the game where we were trying to crawl our way back into it, we fouled too many times. It’s hard enough to dig out of a hole when you’re even strength, let alone a man down. The penalties definitely hurt us.”

St. John’s held the ball for the remainder of the third quarter and cut the lead to 12-5 with a goal from Malcolm Miles.
Hobart began the fourth with a two-goal run that was ended by Miles’ second goal of the day.

The Statesmen were not fazed. They came right back with another two goals, including another power play goal coming during Tom Michaelsen’s holding penalty.

After Terence Leach scored his first career goal to make the score 16-7, Dom DeNapoli committed his third penalty of the day. It led to the final goal of the day, scored by Hobart’s Mike White. All three of DeNapoli’s penalties led to Statesmen man-up goals.

St. John’s will close out its conference schedule at home this Saturday against Fairfield.

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