Pregame Advice Helps UAlbany Lacrosse's Corey Small To A Giant Game

Corey Small got a helping hand from an old friend just several hours before the University at Albany’s lacrosse match with Delaware Friday afternoon.

After a practice session with former UAlbany standout Merrick Thomson, who is now playing professionally with the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League, Small fired in a career-high eight goals to lift the Great Danes to a 15-12 victory over the Blue Hens at John Fallon Field.

Small’s performance tied Thomson’s Division I program record for most goals in a game and gave him 12 on the season for the 2-1 Great Danes. Albany jumped out to a 4-0 lead and took a 13-7 advantage into the final period, but the Danes had to withstand a Delaware rally before locking up the victory.

Small, a 5-foot-9 senior attack from St. Catherine’s, Ontario, played like a man possessed after picking up a few pointers from Thomson, one of Albany’s all-time leading scorers who is still taking graduate courses at UAlbany, and is also a graduate assistant when he’s not with the Wings.

“We were out here about 12 p.m.,” said Thomson. “I saw some hiccups in his game, and we worked on some things. I just wanted him to be more aggressive. He was riding well today, and he had a great game. I just gave him some pointers. It was all Corey out there today.”

“He was showing me some things,” said Small. “He told me where to shoot. In the Siena game, I was struggling, and he saw some things that really helped me.”

Small scored in all sorts of ways against the Blue Hens. He even scored one goal while lying on the ground.

“I got a little lucky out there,” he said. “On that one goal, I was driving toward the cage, and I fell down. The ball bounced right to me, and I just kind of pushed it in.”

After Albany scored the first four goals of the game, the Blue Hens battled back and cut the deficit to 5-2 after the first period. Albany owned a 7-5 halftime lead.

But after Delaware sophomore midfielder Kevin Kaminski scored an unassisted goal to slice the deficit to 7-6 three minutes into the third quarter, the Danes dominated the rest of the period by scoring the next four goals, including three in a row by Small, who had four goals overall in that quarter. The goal he scored after he fell to the ground came just before the horn sounded, and it gave Albany a 13-7 cushion.

But Albany got sloppy in the final period, and the Blue Hens dominated the faceoffs and the groundballs to get back into the game. Delaware scored five straight goals to trim its deficit to 13-12 with six minutes left. Martin Cahill, a junior midfielder, had three of the five goals.

Albany regrouped, however, when Joe Pompo scored his second goal of the game with 2:57 to go. Small added an empty-net goal when the Blue Hens pulled their goalie with 1:35 left in the game.

“After the Siena game, we talked about showing a sense of urgency,” said Albany coach Scott Marr. “For us to play our style, we need to get off to a good start, and that’s what we did today. Merrick told me before the game that Corey was ready to break out, and he was right.”

Delaware 2 3 2 5 – 12
Albany 5 2 6 2 – 15

Delaware scoring: Kevin Kaminski 3-1, Martin Cahill 3-0, Josh Coveleski 2-1, Curtis Dickson 1-1, Beau Davis 1-0, Pat Lombard

1-0, Mark Steverson 1-0, Carter Bloor 0-1. Albany scoring: Corey Small 8-0, Joe Pompo 2-0, Joe Resetarits 2-0, Kyle Krotty 1-1, Brian Caufield 1-1, Mark Cometti 1-0, Dave Brock 0-2, John Alpizar 0-1, Derek Kreuzer 0-1.

Goalies: Delaware, Noah Fossner, 10 saves. Albany, John Carroll, 13 saves.

By Bob Weiner