In a battle of the top two teams in Division II of the Continental Lacrosse League, the University of Rhode Island Men’s Lacrosse team beat rival Bridgewater State 15-10 on March 31.
After losing their last game against Northeastern, Head Coach Larry Madeira was much happier with his team’s performance.
“I think in this game we played within ourselves better,” he said. “We made better passes and we just played better in this game than we did last game.”
The Rams started off red hot with an early goal from Keegan Reilly in the first 35 seconds of the game. URI continued scoring just over a minute later when Anthony Guarino scored, followed by Charlie White and Hunter LaFrance each tacking on goals to give URI a 4-0 lead just over five minutes into the game.
Bridgewater State struck back when Jake Lynch got behind the defense and scored, giving the Bears some life. They would continue to close the lead as scores from Devin Sorin and Lynch brought the deficit to 4-3 within the final two minutes of the first quarter.
URI was able to put another tally up on the board within the final minute of the first quarter as LaFrance got his second of four goals in the game.
It was a back and forth offensive assault in the second quarter when Bridgewater State’s Nick McKenna closed the gap a minute and a half in, but Rams’ Adrian Rutkowski struck back a minute later with the score at 6-4.
A goal by Bears’ Spike Austin kept URI’s lead to only a single goal, but Guarino’s goal brought the score back to 7-5. White extended the lead to 8-5 for the Rams within the final five minutes of the half.
McKenna kept the Bears’ comeback within reach 30 seconds later, but Reilly settled that momentum a mere 20 seconds later on a man advantage, giving URI the 9-6 lead at halftime.
“We definitely had better communication today,” junior goalie Hunter Billings said. “The whole unit talked the entire game and it showed as a result.”
The second half was controlled by the Rams, starting off with Nathan Winter’s faceoff win, followed by Reilly’s third goal a minute in. Bridgewater’s lone goal of the third quarter was scored by Sorin, but it wasn’t enough to get anything going for the Bears.
Reilly and LaFrance both scored in the last two minutes of the third, extending the URI lead to 12-7.
Starting off the fourth quarter, Sorin scored for the Bears and cut the lead to 12-8 three and a half minutes into the period. McKenna’s goal got Bridgewater State closer to tying it up, but LaFrance’s goal off the left post about six minutes in helped reaffirm the Rams’ lead at 13-9.
Tom King’s goal in the final five minutes gave Rhody the 14-9 lead. Tim Keefe had the last attempt for the Bears in a comeback attempt with his goal occurring with over three and a half minutes remaining.
A disorderly conduct penalty given to Bridgewater State with two minutes left gave the Rams a chance to wind down the time, but Guarino decided to add insult to injury with his goal coming with one second left in the game, resulting in the 15-10 win.
“We knew this was one of the biggest games of the season, so we had to prove a point to the division that to win in this division they have to get through us,” Reilly said.
At 6-1 on the season, the team’s next game will be against the newest team to the division––UMass Dartmouth.
“We don’t know a lot about them because they’re new to the division this year,” Madeira said. “This week we’re going to watch some film on them and get after it when we do play them.”
The game will be played on Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. at Meade Stadium as the Rams look to keep their hold on the division.