Monday, March 09, 2009
BROTHERS FACE OFF, EX-TEAMMATES REUNITE AS BULLDOGS LOOK FOR FIRST TOP-15 WIN AGAINST LOYOLA TUESDAY AFTERNOON
BALTIMORE, Md. - The Bryant University men's lacrosse team got its three-game Spring Break trip started in winning style with a 7-6 topping of Mount St. Mary's, but now the Bulldogs must look toward tougher competition.
Bryant will take on No. 14/16 Loyola Tuesday afternoon at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field, and while it will be a battle for all involved, for one family, Tuesday's 3 p.m. contest will take sibling rivalry to a whole new level.
For Bulldog freshman attack Matt Crimmins (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) and Greyhound junior midfielder Michael Crimmins, Tuesday's game is a family affair.
"It's gonna be exciting," said the younger Crimmins. "I've actually never played against him before, I've always played with him so it's going to be a different scene.
"Obviously I want him to do well," he added, "but there's nothing better than beating your older sibling, so it'll be real exciting."
And while both Crimmins parents will be sitting in the stands watching their boys play, they won't be picking a favorite.
"They [my parents] are pretty excited too," said Crimmins. "They'll be there with pins on for both teams, a Loyola hat and Bryant jacket, rooting for their sons, not really for either team I guess."
But the Crimmins brothers will not be the only heartfelt reunion in Baltimore Tuesday afternoon.
The game also marks the reunion of Bryant head coach Mike Pressler - now in his third season with the Bulldogs - and Duke graduate Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.) -
who is using his extra year of eligibility to play at Bryant in 2009 - with ex-Duke lacrosse player Collin Finnerty, now a junior and Loyola's leading scorer through five games (10 goals).
"It's been the second year for Collin at Loyola and he has really prospered there in a lot of ways," said Pressler, who had followed Finnerty's career since the pair's departure from Duke. "I'm very very happy for him. He's really at the top of his game and he's one of the nation's marquee attackmen. I'm really proud of him, not just as a player, but of who he has become. He is a true student-athlete."
And while Pressler has kept tabs on his ex-player, Tuesday will be the first time he has seen him "live and in color" on the opposite sideline.
"It's gonna be all positive things, emotionally," said Pressler. "I'm just so happy for Collin."
Greer seconds those thoughts.
"I don't think it's a big emotional ordeal," said Greer of matching up against Finnerty. "I played against him last year [at Duke]. We've always been tight, him and I, and we get along really well so it'll be fun just to get after him a little bit."
This is the first of two matchups Pressler and his Bulldogs will have against players that left the Blue Devils following the 2006 season. Bryant will also face off against nationally ranked Brown and senior Reade Seligmann in Smithfield, R.I. on March 31.
But more imminently, there is battle to be done in Baltimore Tuesday, and the Bulldogs will have their work cut out for them against the Greyhounds.
Bryant won't have any extra time to settle into the game against an offense than scores 8.8 goals per outing and peppers an average of 33.6 shots each contest. Their 3-2 record features wins over Penn State, Siena and Towson, with close losses to Notre Dame, 10-9, and, most recently, to No. 13 Duke, 11-9, Saturday afternoon.
A perennial lacrosse powerhouse, the Greyhounds are no different in 2009, led by a top scoring trio of Finnerty and Cooper MacDonnell (9 goals) and USILA All-America Honorable Mention Shane Koppens (7).
Between the pipes, 2008 ECAC Rookie of the Year Jake Hagelin sports a .577 save percentage after five games for Loyola with an 8.20 goals against average, numbers the Bulldogs will have to play smart to get past.
"We're going to be highly competitive," said Pressler. "We're gonna try to go toe-to-toe with these guys. But on a short amount of preparation time, we really have to stick to our plan and really stick to the things we want to do. And we must do what we do better than they do what they do.
"We expended a lot of energy in a one-goal game at Mount St. Mary's [Sunday], and to crank it out 48 hours later with just a day to prepare is a lot to ask of our guys," said Pressler. "But we certainly expect them to step up to the challenge."
The Greyhounds will have to focus on Greer and his 17 goals in 2009 and force the rest of the Bulldog offense to carry their part of the scoring load. But the fifth-year senior has shown that he can handle the added pressure and then some.
"It's a little frustrating," Greer said of the added pressure. "But we knew that was gonna happen, so it's just something we have to deal with. But we've come up with a lot of other offense to counteract that, so were not too worried about it."
Loyola gets tallies from 10 different scorers in all, while the Bulldogs spread the wealth around 14 different contributors. Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) and Kevin Hoagland (Glastonbury, Conn.) team up with Greer on the top offensive line again, having each deposited 12 goals apiece so far this season.
Andrew Hennessey (Wading River, N.Y.) stayed hot with another dominant performance against Mount St. Mary's Sunday, now boasting a nation's best .728 win percentage at the faceoff. He will match up against John Schiavone and the .571 success rate he has had against some stiff competition.
But all-in-all, on this day of reunions, what the Bulldogs will need is to dig in and battle more than ever to keep on the side of winning.
"It's a big game," said Greer. "We've gotta be ready to play for 60 minutes. Teams like this capitalize on mistakes, so we gotta play a full 60 minutes."
"We've watched film on Loyola and they're right up there with the Virginias and the Armys for us - it's that level of opponent, again on their home field," said Pressler. "But we wanted to give the guys something they could really be proud of when we scheduled this season, and great challenges are ahead, starting with the Loyola Greyhounds."
