Men's lacrosse faces end of season with backs' against the wall

After a frustrated week of lacrosse, the men’s team comes out with three losses and one win.

On March 23, the Marlins were up against Wesley College in Dover, Del. The Marlins started out the first three quarters with an 8-6 score led by sophomore Brian Fugazy.

After rookie Josh Riley put in a goal, the game’s momentum switched and the Marlins only took six more shots for the rest of the game. The Wolverines made a huge comeback against the Marlins, resulting in a 12-8 victory.

Although VWC had a disappointing loss, Fugazy ended the game with a season-high four goals and contributed two assists. Rookie Maicin Dunk, who stands as the leader in assists, passed in two more for his team.

The men’s lacrosse team went up against Colorado College on March 25 for a close victory of 6-5. This win came out of three losses for the Marlins, which finally gave them reason to celebrate.

Fugazy once again stepped up by scoring the winning goal in the fourth quarter for the Marlins. The goal was assisted by Dunk with 4:27 left on the clock.

The defense was the key in this game for the Marlins. This took away many shooting opportunities for Colorado, and in the VWC goalkeeper’s case, many shots. Tyler Sothoron went against 30 shots by Colorado College, resulting in 14 saves.

Sophomore Mike Canino, ironically a Colorado native, was the one who put up a strong fight for his Marlin team as he fired a shot past the Colorado defense 30 yards away from the goal, where it had eyes and found the back of the net.

Fugazy and sophomore Doug Colonell led the team with two goals apiece and rookie Hunter Smith followed up with one goal. The assists were credited to seniors Brendan Rooney and John Snevely and sophomore Scott Gauthier.

On March 30, the Marlins faced the Tigers of Hampton-Sydney, a conference rival and then ranked No. 18 nationally. The game resulted in an 11-6 loss for the Marlins. The face-offs gained by the Tigers are what hurt the scoreboard for the Marlins.

“We were real psyched for this game,” said sophomore Dan Feathers. “This showed a big difference compared to some other games.”

VWC led the first quarter 2-1 from goals by junior Dan Hofmeister and Rooney. Hofmeister scored another goal, tying the board 3-3 by the end of the second quarter.

By the end of the game, Feathers also put in a goal and Hofmeister's fourth goal of the game was still not enough to catch up with the Tigers’ quick lead.

“After all, we should have won,” said Feathers. “Our defense was incredible in the game. Tyler attempted to save us again like he did against Colorado College.”

Sothoron made 12 saves against the Tigers; in the third quarter, six out of 12 shots were saved.

April 2 was a disappointing loss for the Marlins as they went up against Lynchburg College, who was ranked No. 13.

“We started out hard at the beginning of the game,” said Feathers. “In this sport, you have to be mentally prepared and I think that made the difference. We couldn’t get ground balls and the clears were not connecting. This killed us. As a whole we were not ready to play.”

The Marlins fell behind early in the game, as Lynchburg started out with a fire of goals in the net. Rooney finally scored one for the Marlins only to make a 9-1 difference at halftime.

Sophomore Brett Morris and Holfmeister each put a goal in the net. Their goals were the only VWC back-to-back goals of the game. Lynchburg had the lead still and the Marlins couldn’t catch up, resulting in an 18-3 loss.

“We didn’t really come out ready to play,” said Canino. “It was an important game for us because it was in the ODAC. We have only a few ODAC games left that will be crucial to get into the tournament.”

The men’s lacrosse team heads to Guilford College on Saturday, April 9 and will host Randolph-Macon on Wednesday, April 13.