CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Three America East men's lacrosse standouts earned weekly honors on Monday after stellar performances against some of the nation's top teams. UMBC's Alex Hopmann (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) and Stony Brook University's Jordan McBride (New Westminster, B.C./New Westminster) shared Player of the Week honors while University at Albany's Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) took home his second straight Rookie of the Week award.
Hopmann tied his career high with four goals, including the game-winning tally 1:16 into overtime of UMBC's 9-8 win over Ohio State Saturday. The senior midfielder, who also picked up a pair of ground balls, leads the Retrievers with 19 goals on the season and is just two scores shy of surpassing his career-best 20 goals he recorded in 2007.
McBride, a sophomore attack, scored five goals in each of his two games last week and also added three assists. The 2008 America East Rookie of the Year, McBride scored three times in a span of just of three minutes in the first quarter of a 12-9 win over Lafayette on Tuesday. He followed that performance with five goals and a pair of assists in a loss at nationally-ranked Denver on Saturday.
Resetarits earned his third Rookie of the Week honor of the season after registering four more points against No. 5 Princeton Friday. The freshman attack scored three goals, the fourth time in his young career he has tallied at least three scores in a game. Resetarits, who also had an assist and a career-best three ground balls, ranks among league leaders and third on Albany with 15 goals this season.
In the national rankings, UMBC fell one spot in both polls following its overtime win over Ohio State Saturday. The Retrievers are seventh in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and eighth in the USILA Coaches Poll this week. Albany stayed ranked despite its 18-11 loss at No. 5 Princeton. The Great Danes fell one spot to 18th in the IL Poll and dropped three positions into a tie for 20th in the USILA Poll with Denver.
Team Notebook
Albany (4-2) suffered an 18-11 setback to perennial national power Princeton on March 20... The Tigers, ranked No. 5 in both national polls, led 11-7 in the third quarter, but then broke the game open with three in a row... Jack McBride keyed Princeton’s hot shooting with six goals and one assist... The Great Danes, who had moved back into the national top-20 earlier in the week, allowed their most goals since the 2006 America East Conference championship game against UMBC... UAlbany played at Princeton’s Class of 1952 Stadium for the first time since the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament... The Great Danes are 13-18 against top-20 clubs since the start of the 2005 season... Brian Caufield (Bay Shore, N.Y. / West Islip) had three goals and one assist... Caufield, the Nike/Inside Lacrosse national player of the week on March 17, has tallied three or more points in 13 of his last 15 starts... freshman Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, N.Y. / Hamburg) also had four points (3 goals, 1 assist) against Princeton... Resetarits has three-plus points in four of six games played as a collegian... Derek Kreuzer (Liverpool, N.Y. / Liverpool) matched a career-best with two goals... Chris Schongar (Clifton Park, N.Y. / Shenendehowa) netted his sixth career goal as a long-stick midfielder when he won a face-off and carried it into the zone in the third quarter... Schongar ranks third on the program’s Division I career chart with 181 ground balls... Luke Cometti (Syracuse, N.Y. / West Genesee) recorded the first goal of his career in the second quarter... his brother, Mark, is one of four UAlbany captains... Rocky Bonitatibus (Yorktown Heights, N.Y. / Yorktown) picked up two assists on the extra-man unit ... senior goalkeeper Dan McKeon (Camillus, N.Y. / West Genesee) made his first appearance of the season... McKeon, who has played in 41 career games in the cage, made four saves in 18-plus minutes.
Binghamton's (1-6) game against Syracuse on Saturday marked the second time in its eight-year program history that it has faced the defending national champions. The Bearcats also faced then defending champion Virginia in 2007 ... senior attack Jake Boyce netted a pair of goals against Syracuse on Saturday and recorded a pair of assists against Bellarmine last Wednesday. He now has 52 career goals and is just three scores away from tying Matt McNamara (2004-07) for third place all time in program history. Furthermore, with 71 career points, Boyce is in fourth place all time in program history. He is eight points away from tying Rob Williams (2004-07) for third place all time ... senior goalie Larry Kline recorded 13 saves in each of Binghamton's two games last week ... the Bearcats start conference play against Albany at home on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Hartford (0-6) dropped games to Holy Cross and Siena last week, losing 7-3 to the Crusaders and 10-8 to the Saints... Junior Justin Bearse (Hyannis, Mass./Barnstable) scored four goals over the two games to lead the Hawks. Three of those goals came against Siena, his first hat trick of the season... Freshman Carter Bender (Caledon, Ontario/Brewster Academy) also recorded four points for the week on three goals and an assist. He scored two goals and added an assist against Siena... Freshman Scott Bement (Canandaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua) made his first career start in goal against Holy Cross and finished with 14 saves. He also made 15 stops against Siena and leads the team with 36 total saves on the season...Freshman Aidan Genik (Toronto, Ontario/Univ. of Western Ontario) leads the team in scoring on the season with 11 goals and four assists for 15 points... Hartford will host Yale on March 24 before opening up America East play at Vermont on March 28.
UMBC (5-2) senior midfielder Alex Hopmann’s (Annpolis, Md./Annapolis) fourth goal of the game, 1:16 into overtime, gave the seventh-ranked Retrievers a 9-8 victory over Ohio State in another chapter in a classic series...Games between the Retrievers and Buckeyes have gone to overtime in four of the last five years, and UMBC has prevailed three times (2004, 2008, 2009)... The Retrievers have won seven consecutive overtime decisions since 2006 and are 13-4 in extra time in head coach Don Zimmerman’s 16th season at UMBC...Senior midfielder Matt Curtin (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial), inserted into the game in the fourth quarter, won the draw to start overtime... Junior middie Kyle Wimer (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) worked inside off the right wing and drew a defensive slide. He then fed the trailing midfielder, Hopmann, whose 11-yard shot. The Buckeyes, however, tied the game with a pair of third quarter scores and took their first lead of the game 14 seconds into the fourth quarter (6-5), but Hopmann equalized it just 36 seconds later, starting a 3-0 Retriever surge as senior midfielder Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley/Ohio State) and junior attackman Matt Latham (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) scored at the 8:26 and 8:00-minute marks respectively... But the Buckeyes tied the game with 3:13 remaining and had the final possession in regulation, but junior defensive midfielder Jordan Pierce (Glen Burnie, Md./Mount St. Joseph) played solid defense and snagged a loose ball as time expired...Latham added three goals for UMBC, while Wimer recorded a goal and two helpers...Curtin won four of the last six draws in the game after the Retrievers had lost 10 of the first 15... The Retrievers won the 2004 overtime decision, 8-7, at UMBC Stadium in two extra frames and Latham’s goal in the second extra period was the game-winner in the 12-11 victory in Columbus. UMBC, which leads the overall series, 6-2, fell, 10-9, in 2005, when the two teams met at Johns Hopkins University...The win was the 200th (200-191) in UMBC’s 28th year of Division I lacrosse... Hopmann tied his career high with four goals, matching his total recorded vs. Johns Hopkins on March 3... He leads the team with 19 goals, including seven man-up scores...Hopmann has already matched his season point total of a year ago (21) and needs two goals to surpass his season best of 20 recorded in 2007...He has scored three or more goals in four games this season...The Retrievers open America East Conference play on March 28 at Stony Brook... UMBC has won three straight vs. the Seawolves and lead the series, 9-4, including a 4-2 mark in New York... Latham scored four goals in last year’s 14-12 win in Baltimore.
Stony Brook’s (3-3) loss at Denver was its first loss on the road this season ... it also broke a four-game winning streak which was the team’s longest since the 2007 season ... the win at Lafayette gave Stony Brook back-to-back road wins for the first time since the 2007 season ... SBU will play twice in a week just one more time this season ... defender Steven Waldeck’s goal at Lafayette was the second straight game in which he has scored and gives him a career best two goals this season ... Jordan McBride’s ten goals last week pushed him to a team-high 23 for the season ... McBride goal kept his scoring streak alive going back to last season ... he has now scored a point in 14 straight games, tops on the team ... midway through his second year McBride is already 14th all-time at SBU with 67 career goals ... Tom Compitello had a career day at Denver with three goals ... Stony Brook has scored at least 10 goals in each of its last three games ... the Seawolves scored 13 of its 24 goals last week in the first quarter.
Vermont (3-3) dropped a 13-7 decision to Notre Dame on Saturday in front of a crowd 7,500 at SMU Ford Field in the Patriot Cup in Dallas, Texas ... Senior Andrew Kelleher (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem) scored four goals in the loss to the Fighting Irish and has a team best 20 goals on the season ... Kelleher has scored a goal in every game this year and has a team-high 24 points on the season ... Sophomores Derek Lichtfuss (Lutherville, Md./St. Paul’s) and Parker Bunnell (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) both had a goal and an assist for the Catamounts against the Irish ... Lichtfuss is second on the team in goals (11) and points (14) ... Sophomore Ryan Gillette (Lowville, N.Y./Lowville) also had a goal ... The Catamounts return to action on Tuesday at Moulton Winder Field against Brown at 2 p.m. ... Vermont opens up America East play at home on Saturday against Hartford at 2 p.m.