It was fitting that Loyola-Maryland’s Tom Lindberg, who scored two goals in the Greyhounds’ 6-3 BRHC Colonial Division championship game victory Sunday over East Carolina, presented his tournament MVP trophy afterwards to his brother, Kevin (photo)
. But this was not a gesture of brotherly love.
Tom Lindberg considered his younger sibling, a freshman Greyhound, the real star of Loyola-Maryland’s two wins over the weekend and their division title.
Until then, Kevin’s job with the team was to back up No. 1 netminder Stephen McGirr, who earned All-Colonial Division and All-D3 South Region Second Team honors for his outstanding play during the Greyhounds’ 27-5-1 season, which included a trip to the D3 Regional Tournament.
With McGirr and seven other seniors opting to take a spring break after foregoing one their previous three years with the team, Kevin became Stephen McGirr for his teammates. He backstopped Loyola-Maryland to a 6-2 win over Christopher Newport on Saturday and to Sunday’s victory over ECU in only the fifth and sixth starts of his high school career.
“He gave us a chance when those games were tight,” said Rich Galasso, the Loyola-Maryland coach. Kevin stopped two breakaways and stoned the Greyhounds during 1:43 of a 5-on-3 ECU advantage midway through the third period. Said ECU coach Mike Markham, “Their goalie is a good goalie.”
While capturing the Colonial Division championship didn’t quite make up for the Greyhounds’ failure to earn a berth in the D3 National Tournament, Galasso said the title was still gratifying. “We had a few goals at the beginning of the season and this was one of them,” he said.
“Brian Gahagan got two goals today and he had only three coming in. [Phil] Fusco and [Rob] Summerlin had one. Those guys really stepped up for us and got the job done.”
Loyola-Maryland led 2-0 after the first period and 3-1 going into the third. “They had our number again,” said Markham, referring to two regular-season losses to the Greyhounds.
“We had a lot of chances. We controlled a lot of the game, but it didn’t bounce our way . . . Our players played a good game. We just had a few breakdowns.” The Pirates finished the season with a 16-11-0 record.
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