The only thing the Boston University lacrosse team couldn’t control on Saturday was the weather. The steady drizzle of freezing rain and the snow-lined field, however, didn’t stop them from completely dominating their first conference game of the season.
The game was delayed three hours to shovel Nickerson Field out from under the April snow. Once the game was underway, however, Binghamton University didn’t stand a chance.
BU had established a 7-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the game. They didn’t waste too many shots either. The team wound up with 19 goals on the day off of just 25 shots.
BU tripled Binghamton in draw controls, had a two-to-one edge in caused turnovers, and beat them to 14 more ground balls.
Binghamton couldn’t get anything going all day. Any time they managed to move the ball into the BU end, a Terrier defender would knock the ball away and reverse the direction. The Bearcats were held to two shots on goal, and one score. They spent the majority of the game in their end trying to fend off the BU attack.
The BU attack, however, was too powerful and too extensive as the Terriers tallied 10 different goal scorers. While the usual suspects put points on the board for BU, the attack was sustained by contributions from some supporting players.
Junior midfielder Sasha Lang got BU on the board early with a goal on her first shot of the game. She added her second goal three minutes later, and finished the day with three goals. She had her way with the Binghamton defense all day, speeding right through them on her way to the net.
‘Obviously this was like warlike conditions out there. I got frostbite out there playing in the cold. I wanted to keep running, I wanted to blow by people and keep the blood running,’ Lang said.
With different players getting involved in the offense, there were many scoring chances created. The final score could have been even more lopsided if BU had spent the entire game trying to cut through the Binghamton defense on individual opportunities.
Once BU had established a secure lead, head coach Liza Shoemaker used the game as an opportunity to work on some plays.
‘The fast break was there a lot today and it was just a matter of trying to work on some other things,’ she said.
It was like a game of cat and mouse as the BU players passed the ball around the Binghamton end, one step ahead of the Binghamton defenders. Working on certain aspects of play against a weaker opponent should help out BU later in the season.
Besides, the cat and mouse plan didn’t hurt the BU cause. Binghamton was unable to anticipate the BU passes, and they had a difficult time getting the ball out of their end.
The attention to passing and cutting was reflected in the final statistics for BU. Fourteen out of the 19 goals were assisted.
‘It was a fun game,’ Shoemaker said. ‘We had a lot of people off the bench contributing both in the attack and on the defensive end. I think the defenders did a great job and limited them to one goal, the attackers had a lot of touches out there, and there were a lot of people scoring and assisting.’
Now if only BU could find a way to dominate Mother Nature and bring some sunshine to Nickerson Field.
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