Second-half spree carries Greyhounds
Loyola Maryland advances past Boston University, will meet Lehigh in title game
The Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse team had gone seven consecutive games without falling behind at halftime, since a 6-4 deficit to No. 2 Duke in an eventual 13-9 loss on March 10.
So when the Greyhounds found themselves trailing by a goal at halftime to visiting Boston University on Friday afternoon, they calmed whatever nerves they had and went to their bread-and-butter transition offense.
Loyola, the top seed in the Patriot League tournament, outscored the No. 6 seed Terriers, 7-1, in the second half to advance with a 13-8 win in a semifinal game.
Freshman attackman Kevin Lindley led all scorers with five goals, and junior attackman Pat Spencer (Boys’ Latin) contributed two goals and three assists to become the Patriot League’s all-time leading scorer with 253 points. The Greyhounds (11-3) will play in their fourth title game, scheduled for Sunday at noon. They will meet No. 3 seed Lehigh (10-6), which defeated No. 2 seed Navy, 10-9, in the other semifinal on Friday night.
Friday’s result was nothing like Loyola’s 23-9 rout of Boston University on April 14, but earning the chance to add a title to the ones the 2014, 2016 and 2017 squads captured was the most important outcome.
“I’m proud of my guys, that we were able to battle at halftime,” Greyhounds coach Charley Toomey said. “It was a dogfight out there and not the cleanest game, not the prettiest game that I believe either team has probably played. We gave up one really late, they get some momentum, and it was a pretty silent locker room. Our guys, I give them credit because they asked, ‘What do we need to do?’ Wemade a decision in there to go back to man [defense], and our guys just played hard, and that’s what we did.”
At halftime, the home crowd at Ridley Athletic Complex may have thought they were watching an upset in the making as Boston University took a 7-6 lead.
“Our senior captains did a very good job of kind of telling us that everything’s OK,” junior goalkeeper Jacob Stover (McDonogh) said. “This was a team we’ve seen before, and it’s not a style of play that we haven’t seen throughout the season. It was a one-goal game. All it took was a little bit of momentum to go either way.”
The goal that snapped a 7-7 tie also sparked eighth-ranked Loyola. Stover stoned Terriers junior midfielder Brendan Homire on the doorstep and quickly threw an outlet pass to Ryan McNulty. The sophomore l ong- stick midfielder sidestepped two converging Terriers players, carried the ball in to the offensive zone, and bounced his shot from the high slot over sophomore goalie Joe McSorley (Calvert Hall) with 8:19 left in the period.
LEHIGH 10, NAVY 9: Junior midfielder Lucas Spence scored his fourth goal of the game at the 3:18 mark of overtime as No. 4 Lehigh upset second-seeded Navy, 10-9, in the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament at Ridley Athletic Complex.