Peter Caty
In lacrosse, you only get 10 seconds. It’s either advance the ball or hand it right back over to the opposition.
So with no aide from open teammates or ‘help!’ calls in sight, senior defender Billy Honovich decided to sprint toward midfield. Only he kept going and, after running the length of the field, saw an unlikely opening, breaking to the net and scoring his first career goal.
‘Matt [Petre] scored on Saturday [against Hobart], so I couldn’t be the only one not scoring,’ Honovich said with a smile.
The goal was one of several momentum-shifting plays in the latter half of the team’s 10-8 win over Vermont on Tuesday, the team’s second consecutive come-from-behind and second half comeback. The team also trailed Hobart by two goals at the half this past Saturday, but rallied for a five-goal second half to secure a 9-7 win.
Freshman attackman Mike Esposito scored with just over three seconds left in the third quarter, ending Vermont’s streak of four consecutive goals and pulling the Stags to within three heading into the game’s last frame.
The Stags would go on to score the game’s next five goals, highlighted by Honovich’s athletic goal to give Fairfield the lead. Esposito and fellow freshman Brent Adams, who tallied three goals each, led the team in scoring.
Despite the positive end result, and Fairfield’s extended winning streak, the game was marred with sloppy play ‘- the team’s combined for 32 turnovers in the first half ‘- and both sides showed signs of inconsistency.
‘They haven’t shown any quit in them, which is a positive,’ head coach Andy Copelan said of his team. ‘Now the negative is that we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’ve had to scramble to win ballgames, and I think sooner or later if we’re not careful it is going to come back and nip us in the tail.’
‘Georgetown is a phenomenal team. If we play like we have played in the past couple of games, we’re going to end up losing,’ senior defender Matt Petre said. ‘So we really have to buckle down and execute mentally and finish.’
‘[Georgetown] has to be the biggest game on our schedule right now,’ Honovich added.
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