CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A pair of goalkeepers who led their respective teams to a pair of wins last week are this week's America East men's lacrosse weekly award winners. Binghamton's Kraig Heston (Rochester, N.Y./Thomas Aquinas Institute) earned Player of the Week honors and Albany's Edmund Cathers (Syracuse, N.Y./Corcoran) was named Rookie of the Week. The honorees for the week ending March 13 were announced Monday afternoon.
Heston held Hobart and Marist to just five goals apiece last week and helped Binghamton post two victories. The sophomore goalkeeper, made 10 stops in an 11-5 win over the Statesmen Tuesday and followed up with 15 saves in Binghamton's 9-5 victory over the Red Foxes Saturday. For the week, Heston recorded a 5.00 goals-against average and a dazzling .750 save percentage. He ranks sixth nationally with a 5.84 GAA and ninth with a .633 save percentage for the season.
Cathers played a major role in Albany earning its first back-to-back wins over ranked opponents since 2007 last week. The freshman goalkeeper racked up 29 saves, an 8.50 goals-against average and averaged five ground balls in wins over No. 5 UMass and No. 13 Ohio State last week. Cathers made a career-high 17 stops, including eight in the fourth quarter, of the Great Danes' 9-8 win over the Minutemen Tuesday. On Saturday, he made 12 stops and added seven ground balls in an 11-9 victory over the Buckeyes. Cathers, who's started all four games in the cage for Albany, ranks second among league leaders in save percentage (.586).
Stony Brook rose a spot in both the USILA Coaches' and Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Polls and is now ranked fifth nationally. The Seawolves won their second straight game Saturday, defeating Delaware, 14-9. Albany also cracked the rankings for the first time after beating No. 5/5 UMass and No. 13/16 Ohio State last week and is ranked 14th in both polls. Additionally, Binghamton has won three straight for the first time since the 2006 season and Hartford won twice last week to improve to 3-2, its best start since 2001.
Team Notes
#14 Albany (3-1) recorded a pair of wins over nationally-ranked teams by defeating No. 5 Massachusetts (9-8) and No. 13 Ohio State (11-9) … the Great Danes last defeated consecutive top-20 opponents on May 5 and 13, 2007, including an NCAA first-round win over Loyola … No. 6 Johns Hopkins was the previous highest-ranked team that the Great Danes had beaten (Feb. 24, 2007) ... Albany is 17-42 all-time against top-20 programs since moving to the Division I level in 2000 … the Great Danes are 32-24 in Division I games decided by two goals or less … Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) extended his point-scoring streak to 23 consecutive games, the nation’s 12th longest ... Resetarits tallied three goals and one assist vs. UMass … Matt Johnson (Glenmont, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) had career highs in goals (3) and points (4) against the Minutemen … Edmund Cathers (Syracuse, N.Y./Corcoran) made a career-high 17 saves, including eight in the fourth quarter, against UMass … the freshman goalkeeper stopped Mike Fetterly’s shot with 11 seconds remaining … Cathers’ save total was three off the program’s Division I freshman single-game record (20 by Kevin Rae vs. Quinnipiac, 2002) … Cathers came up with 12 saves against Ohio State and thwarted a man-up attempt in the final two minutes … Ty Thompson (Hogansburg, N.Y./Salmon River Central) had a career-high three goals and Rocky Bonitatibus (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) had a career-best four points (2 goals, 2 assists) vs. the Buckeyes … Brian Caufield (Bay Shore, N.Y./West Islip) is seventh among active NCAA career assists leaders (76) … Caufield had one goal and three assists as his team avenged a five-goal loss at Ohio State one year ago … Artie Marrapese (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) scored his first goal in a UAlbany uniform after transferring from St. Joseph’s … Albany faces No. 1 Syracuse on Tuesday, March 15 at the Carrier Dome (TWCS & SNY) … the Great Danes have previously met the nation’s top-ranked team seven times.
Binghamton (3-3) swept a pair of contests this week to improve to 3-3 on the year... Wins over Hobart (11-5) and Marist (9-5) gave the Bearcats their first three-game winning streak since 2006 ... After giving up the game's first goal to the Statesmen, Binghamton rattled off nine straight goals in a run that bridged the second and third quarters to cruise to a 11-5 win ... Eight different players made their way into the scoring column, led by multi-goal performances from sophomore attackman Matt Springer (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg), senior midfielder David Raleigh (Norwalk, Conn./Brien McMahon) and John Clark (Fayetteville, N.Y./Jamesville Dewitt) ... Sophomore goalie Kraig Heston (Rochester, N.Y./Aquinas Institute) picked up the win in cage and tallied 10 saves along with only five goals against ... The Bearcats raced out to a quick start against Marist as they scored five of the game's first six goals en route to the 9-5 triumph ... Heston picked up his second win of the week and third of the year following a career-high 15 saves and a 75.0 save percentage ... Springer led the Bearcats offensively with his seventh career hat trick and third of the season ... He extended his consecutive-game point streak to 20 straight ... Binghamton faces Colgate this Tuesday in Hamilton, N.Y.
Hartford (3-2) picked up a pair of home wins against Brown on Wednesday and Bellarmine on Sunday ... The 3-2 record marks the program's best start since 2001 when it opened the season 4-1 after its first five games ... Behind a stellar performance in the cage from sophomore Frank Piechota (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull), the Hawks held off Brown, 8-6, earning the program's first-ever win over the Bears in a series that dates back to 2002 while snapping a seven-game losing skid against the Bears ... Piechota turned away 17 of the Bears' 23 shots, a career-high ... Junior Martin Bowes (Quincy, Mass./Quincy) and sophomores Jared Franze (Glenville, N.Y./Niskayuna) and Rory Nunamacher (Albany, N.Y./Guilderland) each scored twice to lead the Hawks' offense ... Against Bellarmine, Hartford never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a quick 2-0 start and extending its lead to 9-3 at the half ... Nunamacher, Bowes, Aidan Genik (Toronto, Ontario/Malvern C.I./Univ. of Western Ontario) and Carter Bender (Caledon, Ontario/Brewster Academy) each netted two goals ... Ryan Compitello (Hauppauge, N.Y./Hauppauge) scored once and dished out four assists for five points, a game-best ... Senior Tim Fallon (Lowell, Mass./Lawrence Academy) combined to finish 26-of-42 at the face-off X, including 13-of-18 against Brown, and collected 20 ground balls ... Hartford hits the road for its next two games, facing Bucknell on Wed., March 16 (12 p.m.) followed by Quinnipiac on Sat., Mar. 19 (1 p.m.).
Eleventh-ranked Johns Hopkins used an efficient offense in the first half and a dominating face-off effort in the second half to defeat UMBC (1-3), 16-5, in the Konica-Minolta Face-Off Classic, played before 17,057 fans at M&T Bank Stadium ... The Retrievers dropped their third consecutive game to fall to 1-3 ... UMBC sophomore midfielder Dave Brown (Coopersburg, Pa./The Hill School) scored a pair of goals for UMBC, while sophomore attackman Joe Lustgarten (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) contributed a goal and an assist... JHU won all 11 face-offs in the second half and used a 7-0 scoring run over a 22:04 span to build the lead to 13-3 before Lustgarten finished on a two-on-one with 1:14 to play in the third quarter... UMBC sophomore netminder Adam Cohen (Arnold, Md./The Severn School) made his first start of the season and recorded 11 saves ... Junior keeper Brian McCullough (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City) suffered a thumb injury in the North Carolina game and was unable to play against the Blue Jays ... Junior attackman Rob Grimm (Black River, N.Y./Carthage) scored a goal vs. JHU and has a nine-game scoring streak alive ... Lustgarten's goal was the first of his career after positng four assists ... UMBC was 1-of-3 on man-up opportunities and has scored an extra-man goal in all four games to date... On the down side, the Retrievers have allowed the game's first goal in all four contests ... In fact, UMBC has allowed the first goal in a quarter in 15 of the 16 quarters of lacrosse this season... The Retrievers will play their 600th intercollegiate game on Friday at Maryland ... UMBC's all-time record is 328-271, a winning percentage of .547 ... The Retrievers had a three-game winning streak snapped vs. the Terrapins last season and do have a two-game streak alive in College Park ... The UMBC-Maryland game will be televised locally on WMAR-TV (ABC2) and on ESPN3.
#5 Stony Brook (2-1) defeated Delaware, 14-9 ...Senior Kevin Crowley (New Westminster, British Columbia and senior Jordan McBride (New Westminster, British Columbia) each scored three goals ... Crowley added three assists ... Senior Tom Compitello (Hauppauge, N.Y.) and junior Russ Bonanno (Seaford, N.Y.) chipped in with two goals and an assist ... The Seawolves answered an early goal with five straight in the first quarter, never trailing after that ... Stony Brook's defense held Delaware scoreless for stretches of 14:11, 15:17 and 10:22 of game action ... Stony Brook is ranked fifth this week in the polls and travels to face St. John's on Tuesday and Towson on Saturday.
Vermont (3-2) lost its only game of the week, falling on the road to No. 2/2 Virginia, 14-6, on Tuesday ... The Cavaliers broke open a 4-4 tie with five straight goals ... Freshman Connor McNamara led the Catamounts with a pair of scores, as Vermont's only two losses this season have both come against nationally ranked teams as it also fell on the road to a Denver squad that was ranked No. 16/17 ... Freshman Andrew Muscara (Chandler, Ariz./Chandler) went 6-for-9 and combined with Tom Frasca (Medfield, Mass./Medfield HS) who went 7-for-14 to help Vermont win 13-of-23 faceoffs ... Vermont posted a season-high 37 shot attempts, but also gave up a season-worst 44 attempts to Virginia ... Vermont moved up to fourth in the latest New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll ... McNamara has netted a pair of goals in the same game three times this season ... The Catamounts return to action this week with a pair of games, starting with a road contest at Fairfield on Monday (3 p.m.) ... Vermont will also host St. John's on Saturday at 1 p.m.