The Boston University men’s lacrosse team will be searching for answers following a 13-4 loss to the Army Black Knights on Saturday afternoon. The four goal output was by far the lowest of the season, and with one of the team’s top scorers injured, it might be back to the drawing board.
The Terriers fell behind 9-1 at the half and were one minute away from being scoreless in the first two quarters. Ryan Hillburn scored three of the Terriers’ four goals, and he was the only BU player consistently able to find success at the front of the Army crease.
Brendan Homire, one of the top freshmen of the Terriers, went down in the fourth quarter with an apparent knee injury and did not return. After the game, Polley did not have an update on the midfielder, who had been trying to dodge towards the Black Knights net.
“Our first-line midfield needs to step up a little bit, and we’ll challenge them this week to be better,” Polley said. “We need some points out of them. They were pretty much held scoreless this game and it’s hard to win when your first midfield doesn’t score.”
Army found success early and often with long distance shots. BU goaltender Christian Carson-Banister uncharacteristically struggled, and was pulled before the end of the second half. Backup Colin MacDougall allowed two goals and made one save in his short stint in the crease. Polley said after the game that he felt Carson-Banister wasn’t seeing the ball well, so they changed it up.
Nate Jones, a freshman, led the way with a five goal effort. Jones, along with other Army scorers such as Cole Johnson, found themselves wide open all game from long distance, especially to the left of the BU net.
It wasn’t just the attackers joining in on the scoring for the Black Knights. Backup goaltender Matt Isnardi entered the game in the fourth quarter, and after running to nearly midfield, found the back of the net for the rare goalie goal.
The oddity summed up the day for BU, and now the Terriers will have to find out what they are truly made of in the final stretch of the season. A date with the powerhouse Loyola Greyhounds is next, followed by a contest against the often hapless Holy Cross Crusaders, and just one win should see BU in its first ever Patriot League tournament.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board and we’ve got to figure out a way to play four quarters because we haven’t done that in a while since Lafayette,” Polley said. “I thought Army played great. They made their shots and they shot the ball really well, we’ve got to find a way to play better. It’s on me, it’s on the coaching staff, and we’ll prepare our guys. We’ve got to be ready to go from the first faceoff.”
Before the Terriers can even think about the post season, there are a lot of holes to fill, literally and metaphorically, and that starts this week in Baltimore.
