Even after seven straight goals, the St. Thomas men’s lacrosse team couldn’t overcome an early deficit and fell 10-9 to St. John’s Friday night at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
The Johnnies came out of the gate on fire and dominated play for the game’s first 20 minutes. St. John’s scored two quick goals at the start to neutralize St. Thomas’ home-field advantage.
“We needed a momentum change. They had it all. Somebody needed to step up and shoot and score,” midfielder Matt Kleven said.
Attackman Sean Hickey managed to get the Tommies on the board with 9:34 to play in the first quarter, but St. John’s responded just over a minute later. The Tommies fought back with another goal, but the Johnnies scored five straight to make it 8-2 with 8:37 to play in the first half.
“That second quarter we knew we wanted to cut the deficit to three at halftime, and we felt pretty good that if we were down by three at halftime that we’d be in a good spot to finish out the game,” coach Brian Gross said.
Kleven led the St. Thomas charge and scored two consecutive goals in a 2:30 span. The Tommies have relied on Kleven, who came into the game a team-high 15 goals, when they need to score, Gross said.
“He’s just a leader in all aspects. He’s our senior captain. He’s a leader from that perspective. For the last three years, when we’ve needed big goals, he’s always been there,” Gross said. “He’s always stepped it up, and he did it again tonight.”
Following Kleven’s two goals, attackman Danny Burke pounced on a rebound and netted a goal while falling to the turf to make the score 8-5 with 1:46 to play in the first half.
“I saw a rebound, and I grabbed it,” Burke said. “The goalie was giving up a lot of rebounds. All six games we’ve had so far we’ve had a slow first quarter. When Kleven puts shots on net, something is bound to happen, and I was just in the right spot at the right time.”
“(Burke) is a sneaky grinder. He’s not a super imposing guy in stature, but he works,” Gross said. “Whether the ball’s in his stick or whether he’s moving to create an opportunity off-ball, he works. He just grinds them out. He’s good.”
St. Thomas picked up where it left off in the second half, netting four consecutive goals, including two more from Burke and another from Kleven, to make the score 9-8 Tommies.
Defensive midfielder Peter Coleman committed a slashing penalty at the end of the third quarter, which put St. Thomas a man down at the start of the fourth. St. John’s capitalized on the man-up at 14:40 to tie the game 9-9. The Johnnies took advantage of another Tommie penalty and scored the game-winner with 13:39 left in the game.
“Obviously we are disappointed. I mean, I think it’s a good learning point, good teaching point. It’s tough to go undefeated in a season. I think losing points outs your weaknesses and shows that we’ve got some work to do,” Kleven said. “We didn’t play a perfect game. We made a lot of bone-head moves, a lot of crappy substitutions, offsides; stuff like that is all on us. That’s stuff we’ve got to clean up.”
Gross echoed what Kleven had to say and also added it is tough to lose in a rivalry of this magnitude.
“I told the guys that I felt bad for them. I’ve been through this, I’ve lost plenty of games over the 10 years now that I’ve been coaching,” he said. “I know that (losing) can be sometimes a really valuable thing. The initial feeling is always disappointment. Guys are upset, and I feel bad that they have to go through that.”
St. Thomas will host the University of Minnesota at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“We gave the guys 12 hours. I told them to think about it, be emotional about it, be upset about it, but come tomorrow morning, they’ve got to be over it,” Gross said. “At that point, they have to be ready to improve on what they saw tonight. That has been a theme for us. It’s just about coming out and trying to play each game better than the last.”
Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.