CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- By leading Stony Brook to its 16th-straight win in America East regular-season play Saturday, the Seawolves' Sean Brady and Mike Rooney have swept the league's weekly men's lacrosse awards. Brady picked up Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career while Rooney earned Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth time this season. The awards for the week ending April 8 were announced Monday afternoon.
Brady (Huntington Bay, N.Y.) stopped 17 of the 21 shots he faced in Stony Brook's 13-5 win at Binghamton Saturday to garner Player of the Week accolades. The junior goalkeeper, whose save percentage was an impressive .809 for the game, made 11 of those career-high 17 stops in the second half. Brady lowered his season goals-against average to a league-best 9.54 and ranks second with a .519 save percentage.
Rooney (East Islip, N.Y.) earned his third straight Rookie of the Week award after tallying five of Stony Brook's 13 goals in its win over the Bearcats. The redshirt-freshman midfielder racked up six points in all (5 G, 1 A) and scored four straight goals during Stony Brook's 6-0 second-half run which extended SBU's lead from 7-3 to 13-3 and put the game away. Rooney, the Seawolves' leading scorer, ranks fourth among league leaders in goals (22) and eighth in points (27).
Elsewhere over the weekend, Albany and UMBC joined Stony Brook at 2-0 atop the league standings. Ty Thompson's overtime goal gave the Great Danes a 12-11 win over Hartford while Scott Hopmann tallied four points to lead UMBC to an 11-8 over Vermont.
This weekend, at least one team will be knocked from the rank of the unbeatens as UMBC hosts Stony Brook Saturday at 7 p.m. The Retrievers are the last team to beat UMBC during the regular season, on March 28, 2009. Additionally Binghamton visits Hartford and Albany hosts Vermont. Both of the those games start at 7 p.m.
Team Notes
Albany (2-8, 2-0 AE) went 1-1 on the week, falling on Thursday night to #3 Johns Hopkins before posting a 12-11 overtime win on the road at Hartford to improve to 2-0 in conference play ... The Great Danes were led by sophomore Miles Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y./La Fayette) who totaled a team-best five goals and two assists on the week ... Senior Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) netted four goals and added two assists, while taking a team-high 17 shots... Freshman Lyle Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y./La Fayette) totaled three goals and one assist... Ty Thompson (Hogansburg, N.Y./Salmon River Central) scored the gamewinner in overtime against Hartford, taking an assist from cousin Miles... Junior midfielder Matt Mackenzie (Stony Plain, Alberta/The Hill Academy) was a key component in getting the UAlbany victory, as he collected a groundball and scored with three seconds left on the clock to send the game into overtime... Freshman goalkeeper Max Huber (Long Grove, Ill./Adali E. Stevenson) played all but 8:41 in the net on the week ... He made 19 saves in his two starts ... UAlbany will continue league play this week, hosting Vermont at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Binghamton (3-7, 0-2 AE) went 1-1 at home this past week with an 11-7 victory over Canisius and a 13-5 loss to visiting Stony Brook on Saturday ... On the strength of four consecutive second half goals from sophomore attack Brandon Planck (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland), Binghamton snapped a four-game losing streak with the four-goal win over Canisius this past Tuesday ... Planck recorded a season and career-high five goals, to go along with an assist in the victory ... Both Kelly Donigan (Skaneateles, N.Y./Skaneateles) and Tyler Perrelle (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) each tallied three points in the victory as senior Jordan Marra (Baldwinsville, N.Y./CW Baker) picked up the victory in goal with nine saves... After trailing just 5-2 at half on Saturday versus the Seawolves, Binghamton was outscored 8-3 in the final two periods to drop to 0-2 in conference play... Despite outshooting Stony Brook 48-27, Binghamton was hurt on the penalty kill allowing three man-up goals ... Senior midfielder Jeff Donigan (Skaneateles, N.Y./Skaneateles) was solid during face-offs winning 10-of-14, collecting six ground balls on the evening, while Planck continued his strong offensive play, netting a pair of goals in the defeat ... Binghamton returns to action Saturday when they travel to Hartford for a night game against the 2011 America East champs ... Binghamton is an impressive 7-3 all-time vs. the Hawks.
Hartford (3-8, 0-2 AE) suffered a heartbreaker in its America East home opener on Saturday as it stormed back from a four-goal, second half deficit, but surrendered a pair of late goals, including the game winner in overtime, and fell by a 12-11 final to the Albany Great Danes ... Jared Franze (Glenville, N.Y./Niskayuna) led the Hawks with five points, including a game-best four goals while Carter Bender (Caledon, Ontario/Brewster Academy) netted a hat trick and added an assist ... Albany led 5-3 at the half and took its largest lead of the game at 7-3 early in the third quarter ... The Hawks went on to score six of the next eight goals to tie up the game at 9-9 with 7:30 to go ... After regaining the lead at 11-10 with 5:26 remaining, the Hawks gave up the game-tying goal with three seconds remaining in regulation and Albany netted the game-winner 75 seconds into overtime ... Hartford entered the weekend as the top scoring team in the nation, averaging 21.9 points per game ... The squad also ranks second in both goals per game (13.20) and assists per game (8.7) ... Scott Bement (Canandaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua) finished with 15 saves ... After starting 3-of-17 at the X in the first three quarters, Hartford went 7-for-9 in the final stanza to fuel the comeback ... The Hawks have a week to prepare for their next game, a 7 p.m. conference clash with the Binghamton Bearcats on Saturday under the lights of Al-Marzook Field.
Junior midfielder Scott Hopmann (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary’s) led visiting UMBC (4-5, 2-0 AE) with three goals and eight other players hit the nets as the Retrievers never trailed in an 11-8 America East Conference victory over Vermont Saturday ... The Retrievers have won their first two league games for the first time since 2009 ... Hopmann added an assist for his second consecutive four-point game... After scoring one point each in his first five appearances of the season, he has 11 goals and 3 helpers in his last three outings ... With the game tied at 6-6, Hopmann scored the first and final goals of 4-0 run that gave UMBC a 10-6 lead with eight minutes to play ... UMBC defeated Vermont for the ninth time in as many all-time meetings ... Junior goalkeeper Adam Cohen (Arnold, Md./Severn) made eight of his ten saves in the second half ... Sophomore face-off specialist Phil Poe (Harwood, Md./DeMatha) won 16 of 23 face-offs and corralled a season best nine ground balls ... UMBC built an 11-8 lead midway through the fourth quarter, but could not hang on and were edged, 12-11, by No. 19 Towson at Johnny Unitas Stadium on April 4... The loss negated outstanding offensive efforts by junior attackmen Scott Jones (Port Coquitllam, B.C./Terry Fox), who scored four goals and Joe Lustgarten (Wading River, N.Y./Wading River), who amassed a career-best four assists... UMBC outshot Towson, 42-30, but Towson junior goalkeeper Andrew Wascavage made a career-high 17 saves ... Cohen had a season-low seven stops for the Retrievers... Jones' scoring streak of 14 consecutive games came to an end at Vermont ... Lustgarten, who had two assists vs. Vermont, has eight helpers in his last three contests... The news was not all good in the wake of UMBC's 16-12 win over Hartford on March 31 ... Junior midfielder Neill Lewnes (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) suffered a torn ACL in the third quarter of the contest ... Lewnes had six ground balls in 2 1/2 quarters of that game ... The Retrievers return home to welcome conference rival Stony Brook to UMBC Stadium on April 14.
Stony Brook (3-7, 2-0 AE) topped Binghamton, 13-5, to win its 16th straight America East regular season game ... its last loss came against No. 8 UMBC, 14-8, on April 29, 2009 ... the Seawolves have scored double digit goals in four straight games after doing it once in the first six games ... the win was the eighth straight against Binghamton, which last defeated Stony Brook, 9-8, in 2005 ... six different players scored for Stony Brook for a second straight game ... redshirt freshman Mike Rooney (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip) tallied a career-high five goals and added an assist ... Rooney scored four of his five goals in the second half ... he has 20 points in his last five games and leads all freshmen midfielders nationally with 22 goals ... three other players scored two goals apiece, including senior Robbie Campbell (Delta, British Columbia/Seaquam) who added two assists ... junior Jeff Tundo (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park/Ohio State) totaled three assists ... the Seawolves travel to face UMBC Saturday, April 14.
Vermont (1-9, 0-2 AE) dropped its only game of the week, falling at home to UMBC on Saturday 11-8 … Junior Drew Philie (Sandwich, Mass./Deerfield Academy) led all scorers with six points on five goals and an assist … Vermont trailed by as many as three goals early on, but Philie tied it 6-6 midway through the third quarter … UMBC responded with the next four tallies to make it 10-6 with 8:05 to go … The five goals and six points overall for Philie were both season-highs for a Catamount … He last recorded six points in a win over Colgate last season and Saturday marked the third time in his career, and first since April 20, 2010 vs. Dartmouth, that he had five or more tallies in a contest … Senior Geoff Worley (Coronado, Calif./Coronado) added three points on a goal and two assists in the contest … Philie has now scored a point in 30 straight games and has a team-high 22 goals this year … Philie has eight goals over his last two games … Vermont returns to action next Saturday when it travels to face Albany starting at 7 p.m.