Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Radenberg, Lions lax dealt a tough hand

Freshman Cameron Radenberg was making waves early in his Emerson lacrosse career. Through the first three games of this season, the attack was tied for most goals among the Lions, and was second in assists. 

But in the fourth quarter of that third game, a March 16 contest against Regis College, Radenberg was chasing down a ground ball against an opponent who was converging on it, too. 

In an attempt to prevent the player from scooping the ball, Radenberg dove, stick first, to knock it out, and landed on his left palm. 

“I just fell on my hand wrong,” Radenberg, a visual and media arts major, said. “It just broke. I landed in the perfect place.”  

The five-foot-seven Radenberg said he didn’t know what he had done to his hand at the time, because he got up from the dirt, and stayed on the field. He even scored an unassisted goal in the final minutes of 18-5 loss to the Pride. 

“When I moved my fingers I could feel something cracking and when I gripped my stick it was kind of hard, but I didn’t think it was broken,” Radenberg said. “I thought I maybe just tore a ligament or something, so I kept playing.”  

The diagnosis came up as a long spiral fracture of the third metacarpal, the bone that connects the middle finger to the wrist. Nine days after the injury, on March 25, Radenberg underwent surgery in which doctors inserted two screws to help heal the break. 

Radenberg said in one week’s time he will trade in his cast for a splint, but won’t be able to pick up his pole until after the Lions’ season concludes. 

“It’s definitely frustrating, especially in games,” Radenberg said. “I want to be in there, I want to help out.”

The loss of Radenberg for the year hands the Lions another blow, according to sophomore Diego Rosende, who was in the game when his fellow attack went down. Like Radenberg, Rosende said he was unaware of what happened during the match.  

“I was on the field and I actually didn’t know he was injured at the time,” Rosende said. “Once I got off and saw his arm wrapped I thought ‘What the heck, man,’ Our team already has multiple injuries.”   

So far this season, freshman attack Jared Brush broke his thumb, and sophomore attack Andrew Romano injured his shoulder. The inactives for the Lions have forced players like Rosende, who started the season as a midfielder, to move up to the front lines.

These setbacks have caused the coaching staff to change not only their player configuration, but their in-game strategy as well, according to Rosende.  

“What we have to do now is try and do something very little at the beginning of games, because we have to rest guys,” Rosende, a visual and media arts major, said. “And then down the stretch we have to have more of an attack because of the numbers we have. We can’t exhaust everybody.”  

In the three games with Radenberg, Emerson went 0-3 and was outscored 52-16. Radenberg found the back of the net five times and dished out three assists. In his absence, the Lions are still winless, with their record standing at 0-7.  

“It’s been pretty tough on the team in general; we’ve had a few injuries,” Radenberg said. “The team has definitely come together to fight through it, persevere, and keep on playing because you can’t change what happens.”

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