PROVIDENCE, R.I. — No. 19-ranked St. Francis College Brooklyn went 0-4 at the Brown University Bruno Classic on Saturday-Sunday, September 1-2, as the Terriers suffered losses to No. 5 University of the Pacific, 17-7, No. 7 University of California-Davis, 19-4, No. 8 Pepperdine University, 11-6, and No. 20 Bucknell University, 9-6, during the opening weekend of the 2018 season.
Facing Pepperdine in the season-opener, the Terriers and Waver went back and forth in the first minute of play until the Terriers’ Bogdan Kostic took the inside position forcing a penalty. Will Lapkin was unable to capitalize on the opportunity, and the Waves were quick to get on the board minutes later. Pepperdine managed to find the back of the net again, but Boris Posavec scored with two minutes left on the clock to bring the score to 2-1 in favor of the Waves.
Trailing 2-1 after the opening eight minutes of action, Nikita Prokhin knotted the game at two-all via a man-up strike prior to Posavec burying his second tally to push St. Francis ahead 3-2. However, Posavec, the Terriers’ leading scorer of the game was rolled which gave the Waves a penalty shot which Pepperdine converted to balance the scoreboard at three-all. Prokhin’s second goal came with just a minute left on the clock to give the Terriers a 4-3 lead, but the Waves scored shortly after as the teams entered halftime tied at four-all
Neither team scored in the third quarter for over four minutes until Kostic connected on a shot to once again provide St. Francis a one -goal lead at 5-4. However, Pepperdine outscored the Terriers 4-1 over the remainder of the quarter to carry an 8-6 lead into the final frame.
Pepperdine rode its momentum as the Waves scored three more goals and kept St. Francis Brooklyn off the scoreboard to claim an 11-6 win.
In the second game for the Terriers on Saturday, September 1, St. Francis fell behind 3-2 to Pacific after the first quarter. The margin expanded to 8-2 by halftime prior to the Tiger outscoring the Terriers 9-5 in the second half to clinch a 17-7 victory.
Lapkin led the way for St. Francis with a pair of goals, while Posavec, Djordje Stanic, Matheus Santos, Cody-Alexander Jones and Alexander Teplitsky each found the back of the cage once.
Facing fellow East Coast program Bucknell on Sunday, September 2, the Terriers were unable to capitalize on numerous shots. Although the lead went from one team to another throughout the four quarters, ultimately, the Bison went on to secure a 9-6 victory.
Early in the first period, Terriers’ Jonas Veazey received an exclusion which the Bison exploited for the lead. After some back and forth play, the Terriers got a man-up of their own, catching up to the Bison with Lapkin’s goal from the post. After several minutes of no goals; the Terriers got yet another man-up as Jones took a shot from an outside position to push St. Francis ahead by a 2-1 count at the conclusion of the first quarter.
Tied at two-all by halftime, the Terriers received a penalty shot score by Stanic via a skipshot to reclaim the lead at 3-2. The lead, however, was short-lived as the Bison found a way to tie in the very next attack. The Bison added two more tallies before Jones scored his second goal of the game, to give the Bison a 6-4 lead through 24 minutes of action.
Bucknell built its lead to 7-4 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter via a foul shot. Stanic scored his second goal of the game off a feed by Prokhin to trim the deficit down to 7-5, but the Bison answered to keep the Terriers in check on the way to a 9-6 win.
In the weekend finale against UC-Davis, St Francis Brooklyn was overwhelmed in a 19-4 defeat. Lapkin scored twice in the loss with Posavec and Zachary Hahn accounting for the other half of their team’s offense.
