By Gavin Menu
Southampton Press 3/24/05

The Southampton Graduate Campus men’s lacrosse team took to the field with a bare-bones roster on Saturday against one of the nation’s most-dominant Division II lacrosse teams, the New York Institute of Technology.

The result was a 22-5 drubbing of the Colonials, who earlier this year were happy just to be fielding a team in the first place. Southampton’s roster was decimated after college officials announced last summer that the school would be closing its undergraduate program at the end of the current semester.

The loss dropped Southampton’s record to 0-2 overall, and 0-1 in New York Collegiate Athletic Conference play. New York Tech, a perennial national powerhouse, improved to 3-0 for the season.

Southampton was outshot in the game 55-18, and trailed 10-0 in the first period before Glenn Roesch broke through on a score that was assisted by junior transfer Sal Galusso. In his first conference game as a Colonial, Galusso shined, netting two goals on seven shots.

Southampton struggled early on to contain the potent offensive attack of NYIT freshman Keith Henderson, who scored three goals during the Bears’ 10-0 first-period run. But the Colonials quickly bounced back, and scored five of the next eight goals, trailing at the half, 13-5.

But after the break, the Bears came out strong, outscoring the Colonials 9-0 in the second half. Bears senior William O’Hare had four goals in the final period, and finished with a game-high five goals.

Colonials Bryan Honstetter and Ryan Smith each scored goals in the game.

Southampton will play its home opener at 3 p.m. on Wednesday against Adelphi, another rival NYCAC team.

A New Yet Familiar Face

By Gavin Menu
Southampton Press 3/10/05

The Southampton Graduate Campus lacrosse team may have a new head coach, but really, not much has changed.

After Ralph Pepe, a 10-year veteran with the school, decided to accept a job at Westhampton Beach High School, he passed on the head coaching duties to Blayney McEneany, a lacrosse lifer who came to Southampton with Pepe more than a decade ago.

With this being the final year of athletics at Southampton’s soon-to-be-closed undergraduate campus, all those involved with the program thought it best to just flip the titles of the two long-time friends. Pepe will continue to serve on the team as an assistant, while McEneany will be responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the team.

"It worked out well," Southampton Athletic Director Mary Topping said of the coaching change. "Most of all we wanted to give these guys continuity, and now that’s what we have."

McEneany played high school lacrosse at Sewanka High School on Long Island in the 1960s, and later coached at Nassau Community College. In the late 1970s, he accepted the head coaching job at Sachem High School, where he competed among one of the nation’s richest pools of lacrosse talent. McEneany led Sachem to the school’s first New York State Championship in 1979.

Later, McEneany returned to the college level and served as a defensive coordinator at Suffolk Community College under Pepe. When that program folded 10 years ago, the two friends moved to Southampton together. Now it seems they will see another program through to its end.

"We probably wouldn’t have been so successful in bringing someone else in," the new head coach said on Friday before practice. "I have always been the defensive coordinator, and now I’ll just have to move over to the offensive side."

Southampton alumni Larry Falkman will also be an assistant coach for the team this year, and, along with Pepe, will handle most of the defensive duties.

McEneany has instilled a positive attitude in his players as they head into what will surely be a difficult season competitively. Southampton competes in the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference, which features the best collection of Division II teams in the country.

"It’s going to be an uphill battle," the coach said. "But our goal is to do the best we can, finish out the season, and represent Southampton the best we can."

So far, McEneany has succeeded in building a positive team atmosphere. Andreas Nilsson, the team’s senior leader, said on Friday that this year’s Colonials "feels like a team, and that’s going to really help out a lot."