The Loyola men’s lacrosse team’s disappointing season took another harsh turn Saturday afternoon, as the Greyhounds fell to Colgate at Ridley Athletic Complex, 11-4.
Loyola (5-5, 3-2 Patriot League) was haunted by 15 turnovers throughout the game, committing five in both the first and fourth quarters. The Raiders (5-4, 3-2) scored six goals off of Greyhound turnovers.
Colgate never trailed during the game, and the contest was never close, as the Raiders jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter. Loyola finally cracked the scoreboard with just 31 seconds left in the first quarter, when junior Zach Herreweyers scored his team-leading 33rd goal of the season, good for third in the nation behind only Brown University’s Dylan Molloy (41) and North Carolina’s Luke Goldstock (34).
The Greyhounds would then go more than 15 minutes without scoring, until senior Mike Kutzer scored on an assist by sophomore Ryan Fournier with seven seconds left before halftime, making the score 6-2 in favor of Colgate.
The Raiders scored five unanswered goals in the third quarter, putting the Hounds in a deep 11-2 hole. Junior Tyler Albrecht and freshman Jay Drapeau each scored an unassisted goal in the third to cut the deficit to 11-4, but neither team scored in the fourth quarter as Loyola left the field with a seven-goal loss and 11 more turnovers (15) than total goals (4).
Loyola outshot Colgate, 40-33, held a 31-28 ground ball advantage and also held a 13-6 advantage in faceoffs. But the turnovers and lack of scoring efficiency doomed the Greyhounds. Brandon Burke had 12 saves for the Raiders, and the Hounds were hardly able to get anything past him on their 40 shot attempts.
“You look at 40 shots and you’d think we can have at least 10 goals,” senior Nikko Pontrello said of his team’s shooting struggles. “But the way we shot today was poorly executed.”
Freshman Grant Limone started the game in goal, converting seven saves but surrendering eight goals. Loyola coach Charley Toomey removed Limone in the third quarter in favor of senior Pat McEnerney, who was the starting goalkeeper at the beginning of the season. McEnerney made one save and surrendered three goals, before Limone re-entered the game in the fourth quarter.
“I just wanted to get him out and let him see what I was seeing from the sidelines and see the type of shots that he was facing and let him catch his breath,” Toomey said of his decision to temporarily remove Limone. “When he came out, I told him we’d probably put him back in in the fourth.”
Toomey maintained after the game that Limone would remain the team’s starting goalkeeper going forward.
Loyola had no answer for Colgate’s Cameron Williams, who scored a game-high four goals on just six shots.
The Greyhounds fall to 2-4 at home this season heading into this Saturday’s regular season home finale against first-place Navy. Loyola had only lost four home games combined in the previous three seasons.
One bright spot for the Greyhounds is that they are still in a four-way tie with Army, Boston University and Colgate for spots two through five in the Patriot League standings. With an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament now out of the question, the Greyhounds will need to win the Patriot League Championship to reach the NCAA’s for a fourth straight season.
