It goes without saying that No. 2 seed Albany (15-2) was thrilled to see injured senior attackman Connor Fields, knee brace and all, moving effectively once again in the Great Danes’ NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament win over Richmond on Saturday.

Fields, who has battled a knee injury for nearly two months and has missed three games, including Albany’s 14-4 rout of Vermont in the America East final, is not moving comfortably by his standards. But his vision and feeding skills are razor-sharp, as evidenced by his two-goal, five-assist day in last week’s 18-9 victory over the unseeded Spiders.

The patented transition game was alive and well. Albany gashed Richmond especially with senior long-stick midfielder Troy Reh. He recorded a hat trick in the first half to keep the Great Danes offense humming in a contest that was closer than expected for a while. Albany scored at least four times in every quarter.

The Great Danes (15-2) no doubt will be hunting for transition scores early and often against unseeded Denver in Saturday’s quarterfinal at Hofstra. The Pioneers have leaned on their top-ranked scoring defense a lot in 2018, while the Denver offense has struggled to string together runs, even with senior Trevor Baptiste dominating the faceoff game so much.

The confrontation between Albany sophomore TD Ierlan and Baptiste — who rank No. 1 and 2 in faceoff win percentage — is a much-anticipated matchup. Once again, the Great Danes will try to advance to their first final four weekend, while the Pioneers, who won it all in 2015, are no strangers to the big stage under coach Bill Tierney.

“If Trevor wins a faceoff, our job is to get a stop. We’ve made a lot of stops this year,” said Reh, the twin brother of senior attackman Justin Reh.

Troy Reh was referring to Albany’s second-ranked scoring defense, led by goalie J.D. Colarusso. He ranks fourth in save percentage (.590) and is tops in goals-against average (7.30).

As for his offensive outburst, Troy Reh said, “I was in the right place at the right time. All I had to do was catch and shoot it. The way the coaches give us that kind of freedom [to shoot] is what attracts people to this place. Everyone has the green light to make a play or a mistake.”

After recording five goals and 10 assists in 2017, Troy Reh has not produced an assist this year. But he has scored 10 goals on just 22 shots.