Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse uses Davis Lindsey outburst, goalie injury to overtake Bucknell, 11-7, in Patriot League quarterfinal
An under-the-radar attackman and a forced goalkeeper change played into the Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse team’s favor.
A career high-tying five points from sophomore Davis Lindsey — including back-to-back assists during a crucial 5-0 run in the second half — helped push the No. 3 seed Greyhounds to an 11-7 victory over No. 6 seed Bucknell in a Patriot League tournament quarterfinal Tuesday afternoon before an announced 472 at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Loyola (8-7) advanced to Friday night’s semifinal, where they will meet No. 2 seed Army West Point at 7 p.m. at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. The 14th-ranked Black Knights (11-3) defeated the Greyhounds, 14-12, on March 26.
Offensively, Lindsey was aided by graduate student attackman Kevin Lindley and junior midfielders Evan James and Adam Poitras, each of whom compiled two goals and one assist. In his past four games, including two as a starter, Lindsey has amassed five goals and 11 assists.
“It’s definitely a big adjustment even from practice with just the speed of a real game,” he said. “But I’m definitely getting more comfortable.”
With 17 assists this season, Lindsey trails only graduate student attackman Aidan Olmstead for the team lead in that department. Coach Charley Toomey said he can envision Lindsey succeeding Olmstead as the offensive catalyst.
“There’s more in there for us to get out of him, and we need it,” Toomey said. “If this team is going to go on a little run, to have another guy that can put up these types of numbers, it just makes you a harder guard. We see the feeding ability, we see his dodging ability. He can draw a slide or actually draw a penalty or just flat-out finish the ball. I think it makes us a little more dangerous.”
Loyola also benefited from an unfortunate injury to Bison freshman goalie Rich O’Halloran. The 6-foot-6, 215-pound O’Halloran made nine saves, gave up only five goals and appeared to make the Greyhounds take an extra second to consider their shot selection.
But after senior defenseman Travis Talarico found junior midfielder Danny Striano to cap a transition opportunity that gave Bucknell a 6-5 lead with 1:49 left in the second quarter, team trainers rushed to the field to tend to O’Halloran, who collapsed to the turf. O’Halloran needed assistance to get off the field.
Coach Frank Fedorjaka said he did not see what happened to his starting goalkeeper but noted that O’Halloran has been hampered by back tightness that prevented him from starting in a 13-6 setback at Navy on Friday night.
“He was able to get out there and start, and we were hoping he would last the whole game, and he did not,” Fedorjaka said. “It just seized up on him. So there was nothing really happened. I think he just got fatigued. The back muscles got fatigued and gave out. He’s been great for us.”
Senior goalie Jack Van Slyke, who started in that loss against the Midshipmen, replaced O’Halloran and stopped seven shots. But with the Bison nursing a 7-6 lead through the latter part of the third quarter, Loyola scored the final five goals of the game over a 12:22 span to take control.
Over a 1:08 stretch during that 5-0 spurt, Lindsey assisted on goals by Olmstead — which gave Loyola its first lead of the game at 8-7 with 10:06 left in the fourth quarter — and Poitras, who added his second with 5:09 remaining. Lindsey acknowledged the difference between O’Halloran and Van Slyke.
“That goalie was definitely a stud, and it was tough to get the ball in on him,” Lindsey said of O’Halloran. “But it was kind of the same thing in the first half. When we were shooting on him, we were getting good shots, and he was making good saves. The whole time, we were just getting good shots, and when the new goalie came in, there was nothing changing for us. Just tried to get the best shots we can each possession.”
The Greyhounds shut out Bucknell over the last 21:35 and allowed only one player to finish with more than one point. Senior defenseman Cam Wyers, who surrendered one goal on three shots to senior attackman Alston Tarry and forced him into a team-high three turnovers, said the defense’s struggles in its man-to-man alignment in the first quarter influenced the unit to switch to a zone concept.
“I think being able to switch between our zone and our man kind of kept their offense guessing,” he said. “It kind of got them out of their rhythm. When we were in our man defense in the second half, I think we were much more communicative and talked a lot more down there. Having that zone in our back pocket has really allowed us to dictate the pace of play in our half of the field.”
Sophomore attackman Dutch Furlong, a Baltimore resident and Gilman graduate, paced Bucknell (9-6) with one goal and one assist. Fedorjaka declined to get into a what-if scenario concerning O’Halloran’s presence in the cage.
“Rich is bigger, he might have had a couple more,” Fedorjaka conceded. “I think the bigger picture was down the stretch where Loyola scored the last five goals, that’s where we lost it. We were fine with Jack in the cage all the way up until the end when we ran out of gas.”
Patriot League semifinals
LOYOLA MARYLAND VS. ARMY
At Boston University
Friday, 7 p.m.
TV: CBS Sports Network
