St. Patrick’s day on a Saturday was not only a treat for students, but it turned out to be a treat for the Albion College Men’s Lacrosse team, as they defeated Augustana College by a score of 7-6 in a thrilling overtime victory.
Mitch Loney, Commerce Township junior, ended the game with 1:16 remaining in overtime by running past his defender and firing a shot into the back of the net. His teammates mobbed him, and the 282 fans in attendance went crazy.
“It was a great feeling, but it was more for the team,” Loney said. “Good to get the win more so than anything, but on St. Patrick’s Day, big game, first home game of the year it was a good goal to get.”
A key part to the Britons’ success was the play of Gerry Battersby, Farmington Hills sophomore. Battersby went 13-16 on faceoffs, recorded 12 groundballs, earning himself MLC defensive player of the week.
“Honestly, I didn’t know faceoff-men could get defensive player of the week, so I thought Ashok [Selby, Northville sophomore] got it,” Battersby said. “[Jamie] Kehoe [Clinton Township junior] walked into the room, and he was like ‘congratulations,’ and I turned and said ‘congratulations Ashok.’ Then they told me it was me, and I was excited about it.”
The win improves the Albions’ record to 4-2 overall The Britons are on a two game winning streak heading into MLC league play, which begins this Saturday at Concordia College in Wisconsin. The team hopes to carry their momentum from recent successes into league play.
“We play Concordia, Otterbein, MSOE [Milwaukee School of Engineering], and Hanover next,” Battersby said. “Those are all teams we could beat, so I guess just keep working hard, and if we do the things we should do, we could be 8-2 going into Adrian. That’s our goal.”
The team knows exactly what they need to do against Concordia to start MLC play on a positive note.
“We know that they’re a young program, and they like to run a lot,” Kehoe said. “They’re fast; we don’t necessarily need to slow the tempo down, but we know their weaknesses and we know how to exploit those weaknesses.”
Loney believes the team’s preparation this week will pay off come Saturday.
“We’ve been working on our conditioning levels this week, and also keeping practice up-tempo so we’ll be ready for their fast middies,” Loney said.
The match is set to start at 1:00 pm.
Photo Courtesy of Albion College Sports Information
Lame journalism skills, Kurt. I expect better of you.