The University of Rhode Island Men’s Lacrosse team played their final game of the regular season and are full steam ahead for the playoffs. The team is ranked third in the D-II MCLA (Men’s Club Lacrosse Association) week 9 coaches poll. The Rams finished the regular season with a 10-2 record and are poised for a deep playoff run. But, before touching on the final two home games of the regular season, a Rhody lacrosse review for the month of April is necessary.
Rhody Lacrosse Recap
After the Ram’s home game against Southern Connecticut State University where they won 24-0, they were tasked with a much harder matchup of The University of Connecticut, five days later. The D-I club program of Uconn traveled to Kingston to take on the Rams. But, unfortunately for the Huskies, they were dismantled by the Rams with a game score of 18-6. This big win was the toughest matchup of the season for the Rams and provided the team with much needed momentum going into a rigorous three-game road stretch.
Rhody Lacrosse traveled to Dayton, Ohio where they played three ranked teams in three days. The Ram’s first matchup of the road trip was against number one ranked Grand Valley State University. The number one team in D-II handed the Rams their first loss of the season with a score of 10-17. URI was able to bounce back and save the weekend, squeaking out two huge wins over 15th ranked Dayton (9-8) and fourth ranked St.Thomas (10-9). The Rams traveled back home after a big weekend and prepared for a rivalry matchup against 18th ranked Bridgewater State University.
URI vs Bridgewater State University
The Rams played the Bulldogs on April 12th at Meade Stadium. Senior attackman Keegan Reilly led URI in the first quarter of the game with two goals, putting the Rams up 4-2 after the first quarter. In an action packed second quarter that saw a combined ten goals between the two teams, the Rams were led by freshman attackman, Will Bankowski and junior attackman, Patrick Grover with two goals apiece. The tide turning goal happened with 1:21 remaining in the second quarter, when Grover assisted Bankowski who caught, shot, and scored the ball before hitting the ground. This led to the Rams ending the half leading 11-5 over the Bulldogs. The Rams then dominated the second half of the game, out scoring the Bulldogs 10-4 over the last two quarters. Bankowski and Grover led the team with five and four goals respectively. Sophomore face off specialist Jack Benedict led the team with eight ground balls and Reilly also contributed with three assists along with his two goals. With the final score of 21-9, the Rams won over BSU.
Rhody Lacrosse then took a trip to Massachusetts to take on Stonehill in their last away game of the regular season. The Rams unsurprisingly defeated Stonehill 17-4, who they played again in the first round of the Continental Lacrosse Conference(CLC) championship on April 27th. The Rams, with back to back conference wins, helped propel them into Senior Night where they then faced the Northeastern Huskies.
URI vs Northeastern University
The Rams battled Northeastern on April 20th on a beautiful New England spring evening. Being the last home game of the season, Rhody Lacrosse hosted a Senior Night ceremony before the start of the game to recognize their seniors. Captain Ian Schermerhorn, Nick Ptaszek, captain Sam DeRotto, captain Keegan Reilly, Ryan Loring, Luc Bulduc, and Conner Leuteritz were all honored at the ceremony.
After the ceremony concluded, an action packed game followed shortly after. In a very physical first quarter, the Rams struck first, scoring the first two goals of the game. Northeastern fought back, outscoring the Rams 5-1 after the first two URI goals. Going into the second quarter down 5-3, the Rams scored three goals but were matched with three goals from Northeastern. At halftime, the Rams trailed Northeastern 8-6. The third quarter saw a lot of contact and even a technical foul assessed to Northeastern’s coach. The Huskies, however, still won the quarter outscoring the Rams 3-1, leaving URI down four going into the fourth quarter. The Rhody lacrosse team was not able to erase the four goal deficit they faced going into the fourth quarter. The two teams both scored two goals a piece in the fourth, ending the game with a score of 13-9.
It is important to note that the Rams were extremely short handed in this loss. The team was missing multiple key players in this game, including Reilly, Grover, junior attackman Sean Clark, and junior midfielder Kennedy Heath. Reilly, who is an instrumental part of the team’s offensive attack, was sidelined on his senior night with a lingering back injury. He first suffered the injury on the team’s three game road trip to Dayton, Ohio. He will play in the first playoff game but might not take on his usual workload of playing time due to his injury. The Rams will need their team at full strength to make a deep run into the playoffs.
But, with the successful regular season concluded, the Rams are looking forward to the playoffs. The one seed in the CLC D-II playoffs, faced four seeded Stonehill on April 27th at 12 p.m. The Rams dominated in their first game of the postseason winning 24-1. The Rams were then tasked with competing against Bridgewater State University in the CLC championship game the next day. URI won their third straight CLC championship in a commanding fashion, winning 17-6. The Conference championship is followed by the D-II National Championship tournament that includes teams from all conferences, starting on May 6th. With the Rams winning the CLC conference championship, they have secured their spot in the National tournament as the five seed where they will face twelve seeded Coastal Carolina University on May 6th at 8 p.m.
Looking Ahead to the Playoffs
Senior Captain Ian Schermerhorn believes his team has the potential to go all the way. Schermerhorn, who has had a great season as a long stick middie for the Rams, loves playing Northeastern at the end of the season because “It gives us a kick towards the right direction before trying to get to Nationals,” said Schermerhorn. And as for what the team needs to improve upon going forward in the postseason, Schermerhorn stresses playing as a team.“When we play together as a full team, and can play 60 minutes we can compete with anybody.”
The captain also emphasized the importance of the team’s transition game. “Our transition game is what we can thrive on, especially against a lot of these Midwest teams, they don’t like transition,” said Schermerhorn. He notes that a lot of the Midwest teams that they will be playing in the National tournament don’t like playing in transition and prefer running pick plays in their set offenses. This transition game that the Rams “thrive” on has been set up all year by the defense, led by senior goalie Luc Bolduc. Bolduc has “always been a top goalie” and has “kept us in some games,” according to Schermerhorn.
As for the Ram’s biggest competition in the postseason, Schermerhorn said that all of the top ten teams are capable of winning it all. He referenced Dayton’s run in the tournament last year as an example of a team playing their best lacrosse at the right time.
“Any team that is in that top ten can go out there any day and as long as they play their top game they can beat any team. So, I think as long as we go out there and we can play our game, we can do the same thing. It’s a game of runs and it’s whatever team can string together four or five really good games at the end of the season that’s going to be the team that’s going to take it over,” said Schermerhorn.
Ian Schermerhorn
As for Schermerhorn outside of lacrosse, he is coming back to URI next year to get his master’s degree and plans on being a part of the team helping out in any way he can. The long stick middie has another year of eligibility which would allow him to play for the team, but he decided to take on a different role. He wants to take on more of a coaching position which is something that he’s always been interested in. Schermerhorn “Might end up coaching this summer”, similarly to how he’s done in the past – helping out coaching club teams for tournaments.
Schermerhorn is very grateful for his time with the URI club lacrosse team. Reflecting back on his time with the team, he loves how it allowed him to stay active and “get away from school and just kinda have something where I can take a lot of my energy out is awesome to have,” said Schermerhorn.
What’s Next for the Rams?
Exciting times are ahead for the lacrosse team, and fans are wishing good health to their players and supporting them to play their best lacrosse of the season in the playoffs. The Rams will travel to Texas for the National tournament where they hope to win four games in a row and be crowned champions. This tournament is taking place at the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex and the games will be played on May 6th, 7th, 9th, and 11th. These games are available to be purchased and streamed here.
By John Almy