ALBANY — Coming off a blowout loss at Vermont, the University at Albany men’s lacrosse coaching staff made sweeping changes, right down to the team’s pregame warmup.
The players responded.
The Great Danes scored the game’s first five goals en route to an easy 12-6 win over Maryland-Baltimore County on Saturday at John Fallon Field.
“It’s the first time in a long time we’ve had a win like that, where we really dominated,” UAlbany coach Scott Marr said. “I think we dominated probably 55 out of the 60 minutes of the game.”
Freshman Silas Richmond and junior Pete Salit each had a hat trick for the Great Danes, who improved to 3-5 overall, 2-1 in the America East Conference.
Marr said he gave game balls to assistant coaches Merrick Thomson, John Maloney and Corey Yunker for their work during the week following a 14-7 loss to defending champion Vermont.
“We really spent a lot of time evaluating how to get our team to have energy through the course of the week and on game day,” he said.
Thomson, the offensive coordinator, researched pregame routines. The Great Danes changed the way they stretched and their ballwork and went back in the locker room before coming out a second time.
UAlbany also switched back to its two-way midfield system and started Salit, normally a midfielder, at attack. Salit finished with three goals and three assists.
“Peter runs well and he’s very skilled and he’s got good vision,” Marr said.
The Great Danes were also helped by the season debut of senior defenseman Will Pepe, a Shaker High graduate who missed the first seven games with a broken collarbone suffered in a preseason scrimmage against Siena.
Pepe said the changes were necessary after the performance against Vermont.
“I mean, after last week’s game, we knew that we couldn’t…
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