There were Thompsons to the right of the goal and other Thompsons to the left of the net. Some Thompsons ended up directly in front of the keeper. Even other Thompsons still managed to score while lying on the ground.
The terrific Thompson trio put together a dominating effort to help the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team bounce local rival Siena, 19-11, in a non-conference game Tuesday night played under intermittent rain at John Fallon Field.
Senior attack Miles Thompson notched six goals and two assists, his brother, junior attack Lyle Thompson, also produced six goals and two assists, and their cousin, senior attack Ty Thompson, contributed three goals to enable the 8-5 Great Danes to avenge last year’s 10-9 loss to Siena, when two of the three Thompsons didn’t play.
UAlbany now owns a 25-11 edge in the all-time series with Siena, including a 10-2 record since the Great Danes elevated to Division I.
Siena, which already clinched the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season title for the sixth time, falls to 8-5.
The Thompsons were so hard to contain that it appeared there were even more than three of them on the field at one time.
“They [the Great Danes] have a heck of an offense, and they [the Thompsons] were all over the field,” said Siena junior captain Richie Hurley, who had a goal and three assists. “We had to score a few more goals to be in this game.
“I think we also had to possess the ball more to help our defense out. It was a double-edge sword. When you possess the ball, you keep it out of their hands, but it makes it harder for you to score. I still think we should have possessed the ball more and maybe slowed down the pace.”
Siena coach John Svec, a former UAlbany assistant, said there wasn’t much more his team could do when the Thompsons were playing so well.
“They are great players, and Albany is a very good team,” he said. “We hurt ourselves with some mistakes, and Albany capitalized.”
All three Thompsons were surprised that Siena didn’t slide more defensively and double-team them.
“All we wanted to do was get that first goal, and then we were off and running,” said Miles Thompson, who has 57 goals and 28 assists and also leads the nation in goals per game (4.25). “We were surprised that they played the fast pace that we wanted to play and that they didn’t really double-team us much.”
“I was really surprised how they played us. They weren’t sliding at all,” added Lyle Thompson, who has an NCAA-leading 57 assists and 88 points for a Division I-best 6.67 points per game. “Coach [Scott Marr] told us to take advantage of it if that’s the way they were going to play us.”
“It was a big win for us,” said Ty Thompson, who pushed his season goal total to 29. “Getting that first goal got the monkey off our back. I’m very surprised that Siena didn’t slide more against us. Most teams do, and they try to take us out of the game. When they do that, we rely more in our middies. Tonight, we didn’t have to, and we were all able to play our game.”
Marr said he is never surprised how well the Thompsons play.
“We feel very good about this game,” he said. “We’re playing with more consistency now, and we’re getting some key stops, as well. I think my two favorite goals tonight from the Thompsons were Ty’s one-hand behind-the-back goal and Lyle’s goal while lying on his belly. But that’s the Thompsons. They are very creative. It doesn’t matter how the goals go in, as long as they go in.
“It’s tough to stop any of the Thompsons one-on-one,” Marr added. “We took advantage of that fact very early.”
But Marr pointed out that even though the Thompsons had a sensational game, his defense played a huge role in the win.
“Hats off to our defense,” he said. “We allowed only one goal in the third period, and our defense is one of the reasons why we were able to score six in a row and expand our lead. We made two key adjustments defensively, and one was not allowing Hurley to create so much from behind the goal.”
Siena 3 4 1 3 — 11
UAlbany 6 5 4 4 — 19
Siena scoring: Colin Clive 4-0, Kyle Curry 3-0, Richie Hurley 1-3, Nate Barry 1-2, Conor Prunty 1-0, Casey Dowd 1-0, Jordan Barlow 0-1. UAlbany scoring: Miles Thompson 6-2, Lyle Thompson 6-2, Ty Thompson 3-0, John Maloney 2-1, Will Stenberg 1-1, Bennett Drkae 1-0, Eric Cantor 0-1, Tim Cox 0-1.
Goalies: Siena, Tommy Cordts, 12 saves. UAlbany, Blaze Riorden, 13 saves.
Categories: College Sports
