On a day that saw temperatures in the low 30’s, blistering winds and trickling snow flakes, the USM Men’s lacrosse team took down the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) Mariners 10-5 at home last Tuesday. The win was the first for the Huskies (1-4), while the Mariners fell to 2-3 on the season.
USM jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but MMA surged back to cut the deficit down to 6-4 going into the fourth. The Huskies came out in the final period with a sense of urgency and scored four unanswered goals to put the game out of reach. Sophomore Brian White (Gorham, ME) talked about the pep talk Head Coach Ben Raymond gave the team before the beginning of the fourth.
“He told us basically we needed a win today,” he said. We didn’t want to leave 0-5. The players really responded to this and we came out ready to the play in the end.”
USM junior goalie Mark Morissette (Wales, ME) played tough in the net, racking up 13 saves. On the offensive end, USM was led by a trio of Huskies. White scored three goals and had one assist, senior captain T.J. Bell (Farmington, ME) added four goals, while junior Travis Witham (Cape Elizabeth, ME) contributed with a goal and an assist.
Junior Roscoe Bishop (West Bath, ME) started in the net for the Mariners and allowed five goals on seven shots in only a period of work. Freshman Patrick Jones stepped in at the start of the second and kept the Huskies scoreless for most of the second and third periods. Jones ended the game with 10 saves on 15 shots against.
The Mariners were led offensively by senior Dan Berry (Woonsocket, RI), who had two goals and freshman Nathan Bolduc (Farmington, ME) added a goal and an assist.
The game looked like it was going to be one-sided in the Huskies favor when the lead was 6-0, but Maine Maritime swung the momentum their way by controlling the ball and out-hustling the USM players. The Mariners were putting more pressure on the ball, forcing the Huskies into taking bad shots. Raymond huddled his team to settle them down.
“I told them to keep doing what we were doing in the beginning of the game and take shots in better spots,” Raymond said.
Huskies junior attackman Travis Witham (Cape Elizabeth, ME) explained why he thought USM allowed MMA back in the game.
“We got over confident and started playing flat-footed,” Witham said.
USM has had an inconsistent season up to this point, coming out hard in some periods and playing weak in others.
“We’ve played good at times, but have struggled in a lot of other instances,” Raymond said.
Bell was happy to get the win, but wasn’t satisfied with the victory.
“It feels good to win, but this is only the first game we played remotely well. We have yet to play a full game, so we still have a way to go,” Bell said.
The Huskies have aspirations to go deep in the Little East Conference playoffs according to Bell, and need to focus on consistency and ball control to lead them to success.
“We need to play the way we did in the first period of this game throughout the rest of the season,” Raymond said.
“We need to be in charge of the ball when it hits the ground, clear the ball on the defensive end, and simply score more on offense,” White said.
USM heads out on the road for their next two games. They face the University of New England on Thursday and Plymouth State on Saturday.