Double hat trick leads to win over UMBC for Danes

by: UAlbany Athletics

Posted: Apr 2, 2023 / 12:05 AM EDT

Updated: Apr 2, 2023 / 10:15 AM EDT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Score: UAlbany 12, UMBC 6

Location: Tom & Mary Casey Stadium in Albany, N.Y.

Records: UAlbany (3-5, 2-1) | UMBC (6-3, 1-2)

Short Story: UAlbany’s defense locks down the Retrievers and Peter Salit goes off for six points to lead the Great Danes to victory over UMBC 12-6.

Key Stats

Peter Salit scored three goals and added three assists
Silas Richmond scored three goals
TJ Sheehan and Graydon Hogg each scored twice with one assist
Jake Piseno forced five turnovers and won four ground balls
UAlbany outscored UMBC 7-1 in the first half
UAlbany outshot UMBC 41-34, including 17-4 in the first quarter

Head Coach Scott Marr: “What a response from last weekend. We’re really proud of our effort, starting with our coaching staff. I gave game balls to our coaching staff today. Merrick and John and Corey really worked tirelessly, all the time but this week we really put a different emphasis on things and we changed some things up. We spent a lot of time trying to evaluate how to get our team to have energy throughout the course of the week and on game day. Merrick did a great job, he did a lot of research on pregame stuff and we changed up our whole pregame workout in the beginning of practice and we changed up our pregame workout for gameday today. We made some switches. We put Peter Salit on attack, which was huge for us. Peter is skilled and he runs very well and he has that good vision. We got Wil Pepe back, and it’s great to have him back in the lineup. He gives us more depth. We went back to our two-way system, and I thought our midfielders did a really good job getting up and down the field. Maybe except for a two- to three-minute period there in the third quarter where they got a couple in a row, that was probably the only time during the game that they had the advantage on us, but other than that I thought we weathered that storm and we came out in the fourth quarter and buried them.”

How it Happened

UAlbany returned home after its first road trip in 43 days to host UMBC at Casey Stadium. The game was moved up two hours to a 1:00 pm start time to avoid anticipated inclement weather in the forecast. The Retrievers boasted a defense that had surrendered just 8.5 goals per game this season, the third-best in the country.
Peter Salit and Silas Richmond spurred the Great Danes’ offense Saturday, connecting three times during the game. The first two were UAlbany’s first two goals, with Salit setting up Richmond on both on consecutive man-up opportunities.
Salit found the back of the net himself to close the first quarter. Blake Runkle picked up an errant ground ball from UMBC and launched a pass down the length of the field. Off of one bounce, Salit collected the pass and fired into an open net with two seconds remaining in the first quarter to put UAlbany up 3-0.
The Great Danes had taken 17 shots in the first 15 minutes while allowing just four for UMBC. The UAlbany defense also forced the Retrievers into four failed clear attempts.
UAlbany’s opening run extended to 5-0 before UMBC finally found the back of the net with 8:31 left in the second quarter. UAlbany would respond by scoring two to close the first half with a 7-1 lead.
The third quarter saw UMBC find some rhythm offensively, outscoring the Great Danes 4-1 in the period. The Retrievers’ leading scorer, Mateo Brown, who had scored 27 goals in eight games this season, scored his first of two goals during the game with 14:29 left on the third-quarter clock. Salit found Richmond for the third and final time to keep UAlbany up six before UMBC rolled off three more goals in the final 5:50 of the quarter to close within three.
UAlbany scored each of the next four goals to start the fourth quarter, taking a 12-5 lead with 5:33 remaining. Each of the four goals were unassisted, after having assisted on seven of the first eight goals of the game. UMBC added one final score with 3:20 remaining, and UAlbany claimed victory, 12-6.
The Great Danes finished with a shooting advantage of 41-34 and ultimately forced UMBC into five failed clear attempts. In goal, Jack VanValkenburgh earned his third win of the season, behind an eight-save effort.