CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Two players who led their teams to wins in their league openers on Saturday are this week's America East men's lacrosse award winners. UMBC's Joe Lustgarten is the Player of the Week after notching eight points in a win over Hartford, while Mike Rooney tallied four points in Stony Brook's win over Vermont and is the Rookie of the Week. The awards following the first weekend of conference play were announced Monday afternoon.
Lustgarten (Wading River, N.Y.) scored five goals on just six shots and added three assists to lead UMBC to a 16-12 win over Hartford in both teams' America East opener Saturday. The junior attacker, who also had a ground ball, factored in on five of the Retrievers' first seven goals as they jumped out to a 7-1 lead, which they would never relinquish. The eight points are tied for the most by an America East player this season and are the most for a UMBC player since 2008.
Rooney (East Islip, N.Y.) picked up his third Rookie of the Week honor of the season by tallying four points in Stony Brook's 13-5 win over Vermont Saturday in both teams' conference opener. The redshirt-freshman midfielder scored three goals and added an assist while also picking up three ground balls. His first two goals came at a key juncture, the start of the second quarter, after Vermont had trimmed the Seawolves' lead to one and gave them a 4-1 advantage. He leads SBU and is tied for sixth in America East with 17 goals.
UMBC, which is receiving votes in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Poll, and Stony Brook, which has won 15 straight America East regular-season games, were joined by Albany as teams to win their conference openers. The Great Danes beat Binghamton 12-11 to earn their first win in eight games. Joe Resetarits led the way with five points and scored his 100th career goal.
Three teams play non-conference games this week, including the Great Danes, who will face third-ranked Johns Hopkins Thursday in a game that will air on ESPN3. League play resumes Saturday with three games. Vermont will host UMBC at 1 p.m. while Albany visits Hartford at 7 p.m. and Stony Brook hosts Binghamton at 7 p.m.
Team Notes
Albany (1-7, 1-0 AE) won its first game of the season, a 12-11 victory over Binghamton at home on Saturday afternoon ... Senior Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) led the team with three goals and two assists for five total points ... Resetarits, who is among the nations leaders with 22 hat tricks in his career, also reached the 100-goal plateau with his third goal on Saturday ... Sophomore Miles Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y./La Fayette) scored four goals on six shots ... Freshman goalkeeper Max Huber (Long Grove, Ill./Adali E. Stevenson) made his second straight start in the net for the Great Danes, making 11 saves in a complete-game effort ... Face off specialist Keith Olson (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) took control in the circle, going 14-of-24 and picking up a team-high 10 ground balls ... UAlbany will visit #3 Johns Hopkins on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game that will air on ESPN3, before visiting Hartford on Saturday to continue America East Conference play.
Binghamton (2-6, 0-1 AE) dropped its conference opener to Albany, 12-11, on the road this past Saturday ... For the Bearcats, this is the third consecutive one goal loss (all on the road) ... Trailing throughout most of the game, Binghamton mounted a furious comeback in the fourth outscoring the Great Danes 5-2 in the final period, but could not come up with the final face-off with 32 seconds remaining to knot the game up at 12 ... Junior Tyler Perrelle (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) tallied his second hat trick of the season, while both Brandon Planck (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) and J.T Hauck (Webster, N.Y./Webster-Thomas) each netted two goals apiece in the losing effort ... Sophomore Michael Antinozzi (Fallston, Md./Fallston) dished off a career-high three assists for Binghamton, raising his league-leading point total to 32 on the season ... The Bearcats return home to host a pair of matches this week beginning on Tuesday when they square off with the Golden Griffins of Canisius before facing Stony Brook in a rematch of last year's America East semifinals Saturday.
A slow start proved to be detrimental to Hartford (3-7, 0-1 AE) in its America East opener at UMBC as it never recovered from an early five-goal deficit and fell 16-12 in Baltimore on Saturday evening ... The loss snapped a four-game win streak against the Retrievers ... After UMBC blanked Hartford, 5-0, in the opening quarter, the Hawks went on to outscore their opponents, 13-12, over the final three quarters ... Jared Franze (Glenville, N.Y./Niskayuna) and Carter Bender (Caledon, Ontario/Brewster Academy) notched four point games to lead the Hawks, each contributing a hat trick ... UMBC converted on 4-of-5 man-up opportunities while Hartford netted just one man-up goal in four chances ... The Hawks entered the weekend as the nation's leader in points per game (22.22 ppg) and third in NCAA Division I in goals per game (13.33 gpg) ... The Hawks will look to rebound from the loss on Saturday when they host Albany under the lights of Al-Marzook Field at 7 p.m.
Junior attackman Joe Lustgarten (Wading River, N.Y./Wading River) smashed career highs with five goals and eight total points, leading host UMBC (3-4, 1-0 AE) to a 16-12 victory over Hartford in the America East Conference opener for both squads Saturday ... Junior attackman Scott Jones (Port Coquitlam, B.C./Terry Fox ) added four goals and an assist for UMBC, while sophomore attackman Matt Gregoire (Crofton, Md./South River) added three goals in his first start of the campaign ... The Retrievers led 5-0 after 15 minutes and 8-2 at halftime, but the floodgates opened in the second half as each team scored six times in the third quarter ... Hartford got to within 14-11 midway through the fourth quarter but UMBC junior goalkeeper Adam Cohen (Arnold, Md./Severn) made four saves in the final 2:42 to keep the Hawks at bay ... Cohen tied his career high, set just one week ago vs. No. 4 Loyola, with 15 saves ... Lustgarten had surpassed his previous single game previous top totals of three goals and four points by the 6:27 mark of the second quarter as he contributed a point on five of UMBC’s first seven goals, scoring four times and helping on another... He is the first Retriever to score eight points in a game since Ryan Smith had five goals and three assists vs. Albany in the 2008 campaign... Lustgarten has eight goals and four assists in his last two games vs. Hartford ... The win snapped a four-game losing streak by UMBC to their conference foes and boosted their all-time record vs. Hartford to 6-4 ... The 16 goals scored by UMBC is a season high and the most since opening the 2011 campaign with 16 goals at Presbyterian ... The 28 goals scored by the two squads is the most in a UMBC contest since a 15-13 loss at North Carolina in the 2009 NCAA Tournament contest ... The Retrievers are now 19-3 at home at UMBC Stadium in America East regular season contests ... UMBC travels to Towson for a Wednesday evening contest vs. the Tigers, before heading north to take on Vermont on April 7.
Stony Brook (2-7, 1-0 AE) won its first conference game for a third straight season, defeating Vermont, 13-5 ... the Seawolves have not lost a regular season conference game since falling to #8 UMBC, 14-8, on March 29, 2009, a span of 15 games ... Before the game against Vermont, Stony Brook had been in the midst of five of six one-goal games ... the Seawolves are now 12-0 all-time against the Catamounts ... redshirt freshman Mike Rooney (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip), senior Robbie Campbell (Delta, British Columbia/Seaquam) and sophomore Matt Bellando (Miami, Fla./St. Andrew's) tallied three goals apiece and junior Nick Watson (Manchester, England/Rochdale LC) added two goals against the Catamounts ... Bellando's three goals are a career-high ... Senior Ryan Keneally (St. James, N.Y./St. Anthony's/Ohio State) earned his first career victory, making nine saves ... Six different players scored for Stony Brook, which led by as many as nine, 13-4 ... Stony Brook will be on the road for two straight games, beginning at Binghamton on April 7 at 7 p.m. ... the Seawolves have won seven straight against the Bearcats.
Vermont (1-8, 0-1 AE) dropped its only game of the week at Stony Brook 13-5 in the America East opener for both teams … Junior Drew Philie (Sandwich, Mass./Deerfield Academy) paced the Catamounts with a hat trick, while senior Geoff Worley (Coronado, Calif./Coronado) added a goal and an assist … Vermont went 2-for-3 with a man advantage … For Philie it marked the 12th time in his career that he has scored three or more goals in a game, which rank as the 10th most in the nation among non-seniors … He has also scored a point in 29 straight games which is the 13th longest active streak in the country … Vermont will open the home portion of its conference schedule when it hosts UMBC on Saturday, April 7 at 1 p.m.