The Geneseo men’s lacrosse team––now the owner of a four-game losing streak––is looking to turn things around going forward following a 24-1 slashing at the hands of the second-ranked team in the country, the Rochester Institute of Technology. Although this setback certainly makes things look a bit bleak for the Knights, there are things that the team did well that can be taken away from the loss.
After a first quarter in which the Knights allowed 11 goals, they allowed just 13 throughout the rest of the game, having tightened their defense up significantly. Of course, it was too little, too late. The Knights scored their lone goal in the second quarter behind the effort of senior attack Steve Cregan.
For Geneseo, going up against the second-ranked team in the nation meant that the Knights would have needed all of their players playing at 100 percent in order for them to have a chance at winning. The Knights were missing key players on both sides, including senior goalie Alex Howell. Freshman goalie Michael Yehl made his first career start on against RIT and he simply could not stop the powerful Tiger attack.
Geneseo’s schedule going ahead doesn’t lighten up at all. The Knights’ next two games are tough SUNYAC games: SUNY Plattsburgh and SUNY Cortland––the 15th ranked school in the country. “Right now, we have a bunch of players out on injury who would normally be starting, so we have guys out there who are getting a lot of game time who haven’t in the past,” head coach Jim Lyons said. “That’s not an excuse, it’s something that we just have to overcome. It’s going to take a team effort.” For the Knights to get some wins out of their next few games, it will take a team effort from all of their players, both their regular starters and the ones who are filling in for injured players.
Even though the Knights’ schedule looks tough and their players are suffering from injuries, they don’t have reason to be discouraged. Those are just other obstacles for them to overcome. The Knights are no strangers to challenges, having had to move a majority of their home games away due to inclement weather the past two seasons; but they are well equipped to deal with such problems.
“It’s not any one guy, it’s a team thing,” Lyons said. “We’ve had good defensive games and we’ve had good offensive games. At this point, it’s about putting those two halves into one whole and getting everyone on the same page.”
Getting both of those halves into one whole game is something that Geneseo has to do if the Knights want to be able to get over this difficult stretch in their schedule and achieve their goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament.