Road Warriors: Resilient Stony Brook Beats Penn State, Advances to Round 2

BALTIMORE — Stony Brook’s spent a lot of time on the road this spring. A lot of time.

Twelve of the Seawolves’ 18 games this season were away from the friendly confines of Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, including a lengthy trip to California immediately followed by a flight to Evanston to face Northwestern. Then a mid-week affair up in Syracuse before hitting the road for Elon. Then the Baltimore area for the CAA tournament — and then back to the Charm City the following weekend for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Head coach Joe Spallina thinks it’s created a bond deeper than other teams he’s coached. They’ve had no choice but to spend time together, after all. That bond and trust in each other that stemmed from it won out Friday night at Ridley Athletic Complex, as the Seawolves used a late four-goal run to dispatch Penn State, 12-8.

Stony Brook (15-3) advances to face eighth-seeded Loyola in the second round on Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern.

“This group is really tight,” Spallina said. “They’ve spent a lot of time on the road. And when you’re on the road a lot, you’re by yourself — you’re not with your families; no distractions. This is a super tight group, and that’s what you get when you play a lot of road games.”

Stony Brook had to “dig deep,” as Spallina put it, with Penn State (11-7) putting on immense pressure in the first half. A 3-0 Seawolves lead materialized within the first five minutes, as Ellie Masera, Kailyn Hart and Erin MacQuarrie all scored in a two-minute span. Penn State head coach Missy Doherty promptly called a timeout after MacQuarrie made it 3-0.

That timeout was what the Nittany Lions needed to reset. Penn State entered the tournament on something of a cold streak, loser of four of its last six, but played like a team hungry to show it belonged in the tournament field. The Nittany Lions ripped off five straight goals, including two from Brooke Hoss, to shift the energy in the building and take a 5-3 lead.

The Seawolves answered the bell after Kristin O’Neill made it 5-3 with 3:30 left before halftime. And they didn’t waste time doing so.

“We can’t panic. You can’t get in your own head,” said Hart, who had three goals on seven shots. “That’s when the wheels start turning and you lose control of the game. I think we have very good composure on this team.”

Masera (three goals, one assist) won the draw following O’Neill’s goal, chasing it down to Stony Brook’s restraining line. She turned on the jets. Masera didn’t break stride for 50-plus yards, and she didn’t need to dump the ball off to a teammate. She bobbed, weaved, shot and celebrated, getting Stony Brook within one at 5-4.

That ignited Stony Brook’s next three-goal run, with goals from Morgan Mitchell (assisted by Jolie Creo) and Jaden Hampel (assisted by Masera) putting Stony Brook up 6-5 at halftime.

Faceguarded for much of the game by Penn State’s Ellie Hollin, Masera was constantly in motion trying to shake her shadow. Coming off the draw is one way to get the ball, keep the ball and bury the ball past the goalie.

“She’s going to wear you out,” Spallina said. “The nice thing about Ellie is that she’s going to score in different ways. She scored that one in transition. She scored one dodging from X. She scored one dodging off the elbow. You’ve got to be a chameleon when you’ve got a bullseye on you.”

Meghan Murray opened the scoring in the second half, knotting the score at 6 for Penn State. Hampel then scored the go-ahead goal, and Stony Brook wouldn’t cough up the lead again. Penn State threatened, nearly tying the score at 8 on a free-position shot by Murray, but she was called for a crease violation to keep the Seawolves ahead 8-7.

They promptly scored 25 seconds later when Hart unleashed a free-position goal of her own. That began the 4-0 run that ultimately sealed the win for Stony Brook, which is 0-2 all-time against second-round opponent Loyola. But those games came in 2009 and 2010 — Jen Adams’ first two years as coach of the Greyhounds and several years before Spallina was hired at Stony Brook.

“They’re a great team,” Spallina said of Loyola. “I’m not sure they’ve played a lot of zones similar to ours. We played them in the fall, but that was a long time ago.”

That fall scrimmage? It was on the road, of course.

“We’ve had a lot of long trips, too. California, Northwestern, Syracuse to Elon — a lot of lengthy trips,” Hart said. “We’re in a hotel room together, and it’s not much room, not much to do. It makes us get closer.”