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Volume CXXXII, Number 20 |
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Men's lax whacks N.E.C., 16-5
ALLIE YANIKOSKI
STAFF WRITER
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| Jake Claghorn '04 takes time to stretch before practice. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
After close losses to Tufts (5-9) and Wesleyan (8-9) last week, the men's lacrosse team destroyed New England College 16-5 at home on Tuesday.
The Polar Bears shut out NEC in the first quarter, while netting five goals of their own. Although both teams scored twice in the second quarter, the Polar Bears led 7-2 at halftime and continued to dominate the rest of the game, capturing three times as many goals than NEC in the final 30 minutes of play.
Sophomore Phil Stern, junior Joe Andrasko, and first-year Ford Barker each scored once, while junior Ford Gurall, senior co-captain Ted Scholhamer, and sophomore Vinay Kashyap all added two goals.
Senior attackman Kyle Courtiss again set the pace for the Bears as top-scorer, putting in seven out of the team's 16 goals. By one goal, Courtiss' tally against NEC is the second-highest in Bowdoin history for scoring in one game.
"I would like to highlight the on-field leadership of Courtiss," said senior co-captain Jamie Nichols. "I think he's been playing tough all season long, [along with junior goalkeeper] Grant White."
White, said Nichols, has "been a leader out there, and has stepped up and played well to replace our goalie last year. It helps immensely to have a good goalie, and he's giving us the chance to have a great season."
While NEC fielded two goalkeepers on Tuesday, White remained in goal for the entire 60 minutes as always and blocked ten of NEC's shots on net. This performance is consistent with the team's previous game against Wesleyan in which he perfectly matched the rival goalkeeper, preventing 14 possible goals in a tense game that extended into overtime.
Stern opened the Wesleyan game in Bowdoin's favor with an unassisted goal. Although Wesleyan captured an early 4-1 lead in the first quarter, the men in black quickly caught up. First-year Connor Fitzgerald assisted both Scholhamer and first-year Chris Eaton to goals, before netting one of his own. Courtiss also scored in the second quarter, and the Bears ended the first half tied 5-5.
Courtiss opened the third quarter with a goal assisted by Kashyap. Even though senior Alex Duncan added a goal of his own, Bowdoin lagged one behind Wesleyan with 15 minutes remaining in the game.
However, a mere 52 seconds into the final quarter, an assist from Gurall allowed Scholhamer to net the game-tying goal, and the game advanced into overtime. Three minutes into overtime, the Wesleyan goalkeeper managed to save a low shot of Stern's, and passed to a teammate who scored the winning goal
The Wesleyan game "was very sloppy as far as the weather, [and] I think that made the game better for them," said Nichols, in part because "our bounce shots weren't getting though."
"Wesleyan and Tufts were both good teams, and any team could have won on any day," said senior co-captain Jordan Fay. "Individually, we beat both teams-we won face-offs [and] one-on-ones. [But] both Wesleyan and Tufts beat us as a team, offensively and defensively."
Bowdoin faced Tufts in a blustery, cold home game on April 2. After the first quarter, the Bears held on to a 2-1 lead. However, they ended the first half in a 3-3 tie with the Jumbos, after goals from Fitzgerald, Courtiss, and Gurall.
Despite goals from Stern and Scholhamer to open the half, Tufts gained control of the game in the third quarter. The result was a 9-5 loss for the Polar Bears. White fought off the Tufts' offensive attacks with an impressive 11 saves.
"We had a lot of shots [against Tufts], but for some reason they just weren't getting in," said Nichols. "Their goalie made some good saves-along with that our shots could have been a little bit better. We didn't play poorly; they just had a great day, and we fell victim to it."
"Our play is definitely not indicative of record," said Fay. "We are a much better team than shows. [However] we have to play as a team and not as individuals. There were moments in both [the Wesleyan and Tufts] games in which we played as a team, and neither [team] could come close to playing with us at those points. We have to do that for a full 60 minutes to be successful."
Looking ahead to their game against Middlebury this weekend, Fay said, "We just need to continue working hard as a team. Individually we can beat anyone, but with so many young players, we have to keep to the team concept."
Nichols agreed, saying, "We have a young and inexperienced team that isn't used to the mentality that it takes to win college games. But we have a lot of talent, and I firmly believe that we can pull together and win the rest of our games and have a great shot at winning conference. We are close, but we must not accept that result."
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