Men’s lacrosse fights off comeback effort to defeat Providence College

The Boston University men’s lacrosse team started off its third year as a program on the right foot, relying on impressive defense to earn a 9-5 victory over Providence College Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field.

A year after finishing 6-8 and barely missing the Patriot League Tournament, the Terriers (1-0) took a 5-1 lead into halftime. BU also held Providence to 19 shots in the game and forced 27 turnovers to avenge their 7-4 loss to the Friars (0-1) last season.

Sophomore attacker Jack Wilson and freshman attacker James Burr each notched two goals and an assist for the Terriers. Sophomore attacker Ryan Hilburn and junior faceoff specialist Sam Talkow totaled two points each.

“I’m really proud of the way we grinded that win out,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said. “It was very similar to last year’s game [at Providence] where we kind of were controlling the play. It felt very much like the last game. We even talked about that at the first quarter break, and then we went on that run of four goals in the second quarter. That was the difference in the game. We went in 5-1 at the half and controlled the game from thereafter.”

The first period ended after Burr scored his first collegiate goal at the 8:14 mark, thanks to an assist from Hilburn. That was the only goal in the quarter, but the second quarter would prove to be completely different on the offensive end for the Terriers. Hilburn notched a goal with 10:53 left in the quarter on a man advantage, followed by three goals in just 32 seconds from Wilson, sophomore midfielder Hayden Ruiz and Talkow to put BU up 5-0 with 6:57 remaining in the half.

Talkow’s goal came only 11 seconds after the goal from Ruiz, as the junior midfielder won the faceoff at midfield and streaked down the right side of the field uncontested and fired past goalkeeper Tate Boyce. Talkow finished winning 16-of-18 faceoffs for the Terriers.

After finishing as one of the top faceoff specialists in the country last year, the Delray Beach, Florida native continued his excellence in that area, and it provided a big boost for his team.

“Sam does a great job of getting us the ball,” Wilson said. “He killed it out there today. It definitely gives us the opportunity to be a little more risky, but at the same time, we really need to control the ball. But knowing that Sam is there making plays all the time really takes a little bit of pressure off of the offense.”

In the same vein as Wilson, Polley lauded Talkow’s faceoff ability and his capacity to alleviate pressure on BU’s defense.

“I think it started with the faceoff,” Polley said. “We were just so dominant there. We had the ball so much. We took away a lot of their opportunities by winning faceoffs and having the ball, so Sam was our best defense today.

After letting up a goal to Providence to close out the first half, the Terriers continued on the offensive end, totaling 18 shots in the third period compared to the Friar’s three. Wilson notched his second goal just a minute into the quarter, and junior midfielder Ryan Johnston added another goal to put BU up 7-1. Providence would score about halfway through the quarter to cut into the lead, but not before Burr scored his second goal of the day to put the Terriers up six with one period to go.

First goal of the year for @BUMensLacrosse. Sideline erupts after James Burr's goal against @PCFriarsLax pic.twitter.com/V6muPiHitj

— DFP Sports (@DFPsports) February 6, 2016

In the fourth quarter, the Friars finally came alive offensively, scoring three straight goals to cut the BU to 8-5. Ten seconds after their last tally, however, freshman long stick midfielder Drew Lukacs raced down the field and fired a shot past Boyce to put the game away for good.

Polley admitted that his team struggled in the final period due to turnovers.

“We got a little careless with the ball,” Polley said. “We had some opportunities that we could have pushed it to even further stretch the lead. We want to be a higher paced offensive team and take advantage of the other team’s mistakes and push transition, so we have to find that happy medium between continuing to push the flow of the play and not be careless.”

Although turnovers were a major problem for the Terriers throughout the game, Polley said he was pleased with the playing time his freshman got, most notably Burr.

“We didn’t play great,” Polley admitted, “We had 24 turnovers — we weren’t great in the clearing game. It’s been our Achilles heel for two years now, so we got to get better there. But some freshmen got their first experience and made some plays, and that’s going to be huge for us going forward, getting those guys up to speed.”