St. A’s, Bryant, UVM can all exit the NCAAs with heads held high

Goalie CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.) and St. Anselm stood tall in their NCAA quarterfinal against Le Moyne. (Jim Stankiewicz)

The Division 2 and Division 1 men’s lacrosse tournaments delivered more than a fair share of drama all weekend long. The three teams from this region — Saint Anselm, Bryant and Vermont — all delivered with heroic performances.

Unfortunately for those teams and their fan bases, those efforts fell short, but they still left an indelible mark on the field as those tournaments move into the final rounds of competition.

From here on out our coverage will be player specific, but let’s take one last longing look at the most resolute of squads.

Here’s what stood out in each game over the weekend.

Saint Anselm 12, Seton Hill 11 (OT)

In what has to be the most exciting game of the weekend — unless you’re a Bryant fan — the Hawks won their first NCAA playoff game in their first appearance in the tournament with style.

Down three in the third quarter, the Hawks dug deep and relied on their goal-scoring core of the Larsens, as Noah and Nick contributed two goals and an assist in the comeback.

Matt Ward (Shrewsbury, Mass.) put St. A’s up briefly in the fourth quarter, but Seton Hill tied the game with Harper McGarrity knotting the game at 11 with 37 seconds left in regulation.

However, it was a day for Larsens as freshman Noah (Northborough, Mass.) scored the game-winner in the extra frame after a forced turnover gave the Hawks possession under the restraining line. His hard-driving looped effort from X dropped as he got to five and five to cement the historic victory for the pluckiest of New England teams.

Le Moyne 11, Saint Anselm 7

Another matchup with Le Moyne proved to be a bridge too far and fraught with energetic water mammals once again for the Hawks.

The Dolphins scored eight of their 11 total goals in the first half, burying the Hawks with a barrage of shots that CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.) struggled to keep up with, despite finishing with 15 saves. As the game wore on, the Hawks found their footing, but the mountain was too high to climb.

The Hawks did end up outshooting Le Moyne 42-32, but the finishing touch just was not there. It was a disappointing end to a season full of progress and wins all over the field, but ultimately the progress of this team was one of the region’s best stories in a year when those kinds of successes were needed.

Virginia 13, Bryant 11

Bryant came to play, beating Virginia at its own game for three of its six first-half goals. While many fans and pundits predicted that the Cavaliers would run over the Bulldogs, that would not come to pass at any point in this game.

Coach Mike Pressler (Wilton, Conn.) and his staff constructed an effective and executable plan against one of the ACC’s best teams. They beat the much-vaunted ride with quick deep passes and that led to multiple fast-break chances that were ultimately turned into goals.

Virginia keyed in on stopping freshman wunderkind Bennett Abladian (Londonderry, N.H.) by putting their best defenseman — Kyle Kology — on him for the entire game. Abladian still got free for a rebound goal, but it was the rest of the Bryant offense that got a chance to shine.

A costly error at the end of the first half gifted Virginia possession to start the third quarter despite the Bulldogs being two men up. However, Bryant took that mistake in stride and scored four goals in a row to go up by two with 5:41 left to play in the quarter. The capper to that run was scored by junior attackman Marc O’Rourke (Hingham, Mass.).

Unfortunately, that would be their last lead as the Cavs opened up their offense and a stable full of shooters ran wild in the fourth quarter. Ultimately, Bryant was unable to deal with the skips and step-downs and fell to the Cavs after a truly heroic effort.

Maryland 17, Vermont 11

In a game that left little doubt, Maryland bested the America East champs with a combination of offensive firepower and timely doubles on defense.

Vermont, a team used to controlling the majority of the action in both boxes, found itself on the opposite end of its own tactics for much of the contest. Turnovers in the open field were the slow killer for Maryland against the Catamounts, but it was not the determining factor in the result. The Terps had too many weapons to defend and too many shields to penetrate.

All told, it was a disappointing end to a very tough year for coach Chris Feifs and his squad, which overcame a litany of issues related to COVID protocols on campus and multiple underclassmen being hoisted into key roles.

@TheKyleDevitte
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