Nate Collins’ Senior Day performance gives FSU Men’s Lax the 12-6 victory over St. Mary’s

It was a bright and sunny afternoon at Bobcat Stadium as Frostburg State (9-6) hosted CAC opponent St. Mary’s College (4-11), and attackman Nate Collins honored his fellow seniors on Senior Day by scoring four goals to give the Bobcats their fifth straight victory by the score of 12-6.

The Seahawks opened the contest on the board first thanks to a goal scored by Ray LaPlaca. However, FSU answered with three goals in the quarter from senior midfielder Daniel Paladino, senior captain Adam Gross, and junior attackman Jake Howarth with the score 3-1 at the end of the first.

Dylan Scheeler added on to the Bobcats’ lead in the second quarter with a tally assisted by Paul Ruppert. Though SMC didn’t give up, as Connor Benhoff found the net to cut the deficit to 4-2.

It truly was senior day as Collins, Gross, and senior midfielder Keegan Colegrove all added three more goals that extended Frostburg’s lead to 7-2. LaPlaca gave the Seahawks another tally to cut the deficit to 7-3 at halftime.

In the third, Collins found the net three more times, and first-year attackman Jason Clinton also scored on a tic-tac-toe play, which involved an assist from Collins. The Bobcats led 11-3 at the end of the quarter.

Early in the fourth, Clinton added on to Frostburg’s huge lead to make it 12-3. The Seahawks didn’t give up though, as Jeremiah Clemmer scored on a man up opportunity with three Bobcats in the box. Max Groen and Jack Conway scored the final two goals for St. Mary’s.

Besides Collins leading the way for the Bobcats with four goals, Gross and Clinton scored twice. Gross and Howarth both had two assists on the afternoon.
Head coach Tommy Pearce noted that the best part about Collins scoring four goals was that they came on just five shots. “He did a great job finishing those shots in around the crease at a high percentage,” he said.
In net, sophomore keeper Jack Marks notched 10 saves and secured the win, while junior Adam Smith made two saves.

The Bobcats and Seahawks were both competitive at the X, but FSU narrowly won 12-of-22 faceoffs, while St. Mary’s won 10.

“I think we’ve been playing better as of late than we did early in the season, but we’re still struggling to avoid some unforced turnovers in the clearing game and missing out on some good opportunities on the offensive end because of some simple catching and throwing errors,” Coach Pearce said. “That’s been a problem for us all year. If we can eliminate some of those, I think we can be a real threat entering the CAC tournament.”

Frostburg has two regular season games left, including a home contest against York (Pa.) on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. and a road contest against archrival Salisbury on Saturday, April 21 at 1 p.m.