On March 25, as the sun set and the fans – more than 1,000 of them – poured into campus on their way to the Stags’ ECAC home opener against Penn State, FUSA president-elect Hutchinson William’s 08 was tailgating.
He stood there, wearing his trademark red wig and red and black face paint, flipping burgers, as AC/DC music blared from the trunk of his car.
But in a sign that lacrosse is creeping up towards basketball on the list of marquee sports at Fairfield, Williams wasn’t the only one with a grill and some chilled beverages (don’t worry FUSA, he served ice tea).
The game, which the Stags lost 11-6, lived up to the pre-game hype, at least early on. With the stands on the side of the field nearest the teams’ benches packed almost to capacity, fans scattered all over the perimeter of the field and the Super Duper Weenie truck dishing out dogs and burgers in one corner of the field, the Stags jumped out to a 3-0 lead and looked poised to upset the Nittany Lions for the second straight year.
But, playing without leading scorer Greg Downing ’07, who missed the game because of an enlarged spleen, the Stags faded quickly.
Attackman John Eremus led Penn State on a 6-1 run in the second half, in which the Stags won just 2-of-9 face-offs, and when time expired, the fans- Williams and a couple hundred students included – headed for the exits with disappointing looks on their faces.
But after the game, one thing was constant in the players’ comments, and it seemed to be of even greater importance than the Stags’ lack of fire power in the second half: they noticed the turnout and the enthusiasm of those who came, and they don’t want to let their fans down again.
“They always come out and support us 100 percent, and there’s nothing more we could ask for,” senior co-captain captain Josh Thornton said.
“We’re looking forward to being the premier sport here and I’m sorry we disappointed everyone, but they keep coming, week after week, they keep supporting us, and we really appreciate that,” co-captain Trevor Kelly ’06 added.
Five years ago, Kelly’s comments would have been laughed at. Lacrosse was a low-budget sport that some people on campus likely didn’t even know about. And even today, with the sport growing faster than any other in the country, the thought of lacrosse even being mentioned in the same sentence as basketball would be a joke on most campuses, many of which don’t even have a team.
But now, with home games and select away games being broadcast on WVOF and national media outlets such as Inside Lacrosse magazine paying attention to the team, it’s worth pointing out that a significant number of people were genuinely disappointed when the Stags couldn’t hold on to the lead, and that the opposing team took notice of the atmosphere.
“Its nice to have a big crowd,” Penn State Head Coach Glenn Theil said. “Yeah, they’re yelling at us, but its still nice to be able to play in front of a big crowd, a noisy crowd, an emotional crowd. Once we got in control of things, we were enjoying it.”
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