Plattsburgh State Men’s Lacrosse sophomore attacker Dilon Smith scored a career-high five points, with two assists and three goals during Tuesday’s home-opener, despite a loss from Clarkson University (15-6).
“It was nice to score the most points, but we still lost though,” Smith said. “It would’ve been better if we won.”
Head coach Joseph May said the Cardinals performance maintained their intensity and “never let off the gas.”
“That shows the resilience of the team,” May said. “The first 10 goals we gave up in that game, I would say seven of them were self-inflicted mistakes.”
He acknowledged the team’s mistakes throughout the game were capitalized by Clarkson, whose team isn’t necessarily short of senior players. May said Clarkson was a very “technically sound” team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes in terms of turnovers.
“They work really well together as a team,” May said. “There isn’t a dominant player, but they’re very balanced.”
The Golden Knights hit the ground running with the first goal of the game made by sophomore midfielder Bryan Penney within 79 seconds of the first period. Clarkson made three more consecutive goals before senior midfielder Daniel Bonafede made his second goal of the season with an assist from Smith.
PSU trailed behind Clarkson for the entire game within an ever-changing deficit. The Cards were more fortunate in the second period with a man-up opportunity and four goals made by freshman attacker Kieran Rowley and Smith. However, Clarkson widened its lead by six goals leaving them up by five in the end of the second period.
“There was a lot of reflection last game,” sophomore goalie Christian Bassi said. “As a whole, I think we did a lot of stuff we said we weren’t going to do. We kind of just allowed them to play their game. We’ll never be perfect and play 60 minutes of good lacrosse. We are just looking forward to our next game.”
Clarkson outscored PSU (4-1) in the third period keeping a strong grip on the lead. Defense hardened on both sides during the last period with Golden Knights senior attacker Pierce Currie making the only goal with an assist from junior attacker Jay Considine.
“We are trying to get 1% better every day,” May said. “That starts by being honest with yourself and look in the mirror and ask ‘What do we need to work on?’ and ‘What do we want to be?’ So today, we were doing some self-reflection, getting back to playing loose and having fun.”
The Cards will play at New England College tomorrow at 3.p.m.
Email Mataeo Smith at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
