Oh My God...No Way

Those were the only words, aside from curse words, coming out of my mouth during the latter part of Saturday's game against Hofstra. While a lot of the game was spent in awe for the amount of skill and excitement I saw on the field as the Bears trampled over the Flying Dutchmen to a 10-3 lead in the third quarter, the the final quarter and overtimes were spent in awe of a terrible turn of events. Here is my perspective of Saturday's 11-10 loss to Hofstra.

The mood was set, the momentum was there and the Bears came out strong in their second regular season game. The Bears started things off with four unanswered goals in the first quarter before Hofstra made the final goal of the quarter to make it 4-1. Senior Jack Walsh fired a shot past goalie, Danny Orlando, in a man-up opportunity off of an assist from senior Brady Williams. The events that ensued for the next two quarters showed Brown Lacrosse at its finest. Going into the half, the Bears led 6-2 and it seemed like nothing could stop them.

The Bears charged into the second half with even more energy and scoring four more goals to lead 10-3. Brown's final goal of the game was scored by sophomore Andrew Feinberg, which was his third of the day. And then something changed. Despite outstanding efforts by defensemen Peter Fallon, Todd Faiella and Ryan Cassil along with midfielder Nick Melvin, who I see as one of the team's unsung heroes, the Bears couldn't hold off the scrappy play from the Flying Dutchmen. Senior Jordan Burke played outstanding in goal with 15 saves and a hand in some of Brown's key transitions throughout the game.

With a series of unbelievable calls by the refs (sorry, but this is a blog and I can say that), Hofstra's success on some key face-off possessions, and five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter, the Bears entered overtime with bad luck and little less steam.

Not that anyone wants to hear complaints, but I'd like to call attention to one of the most ridiculous, although least devastating, official calls of the game. As you may or may not know, coaches are alotted two timeouts per half and one timeout in overtime. Since you don't have many opportunities to stop the game and regroup, these timeouts are important, especially when your team begins losing a dominating lead toward the end of a game. However, one of the Bears timeouts was taken away from them when an official mistakenly assumed Coach Lars Tiffany was calling for one. Well, he wasn't. In fact, he was calling for senior Phil Thebault (tay-bow) on the field. Nonetheless, the timeout clock was ticking as Tiffany used Thebault as his prop pointing to the back of his jersey, yelling "That's HIS NAME!"

Here is a picture of the Bears' "Thebault" in the second half.

In addition to Walsh and Feinberg, Nic Bell, Jake Hardy, Thomas Muldoon, Collins Carey, Kyle Hollingsworth and Todd Faiella each got on the board with a goal. Senior co-captain Faiella, who joined the Bears following a brief stint with the Brown Football team in 2005, tallied his first career goal.

While I may have felt like I was going to throw up for so much of this game, I see this loss simply as a reality check for the Bears. This isn't the end of the world and with the way their coach handles losses, I think this will get the team in gear for the weekend ahead. This Friday, the Bears face Quinnipiac at home before they meet with Denver on Sunday.