PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The Boston University men’s lacrosse team earned a win against Lehigh University in the quarterfinal game of the Patriot League Tournament Tuesday night at Nickerson Field.
The Terriers’ (12-3, 5- 3 Patriot League ) victory over the Mountain Hawks (7-7, 4-4 Patriot League) will send them to Baltimore, Maryland this Friday to face second-seeded United States Military Academy in the Patriot League semifinals.
Senior midfielder Cody Triolo of Lehigh gave his side the early 1-0 advantage with a goal two minutes into the first quarter when he snuck the ball past Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year senior Christian Carson-Banister.
Sophomore attackers James Burr and Michael Laviano evened the score for the Terriers shortly after when Burr converted an assist from Laviano.
Freshman midfielder John MacLean then took the lead for BU by finishing off an assist from senior attacker Cal Dearth.
Lehigh closed the gap when senior midfielder Ian Strain scored off of an assist from freshman Ryan Klose to bring the game to a tie heading into the second quarter.
Then, the Mountain Hawks’ Triolo opened the second quarter with a goal for Lehigh to provide his team with a 3-2 advantage.
It was when Dearth scored his first goal of the game to bring the score to an even 3-3 that Lehigh would be held off the scoresheet until the last few seconds of the game.
Burr got the scoring underway in the third quarter with an assist from freshman midfielder MacLean which diverted Burr’s defender, allowing Burr to cut around the post and score from behind the net.
Moments later, junior attacker Ryan Hilburn then received a pass just above his head from Dearth to widen the Terriers’ lead on Lehigh to two goals.
Dearth had the next goal off of an assist from Burr, and MacLean closed out the quarter by posting his second goal of the game via a ball caught in the air from junior attacker Jack Wilson.
In the fourth quarter, Hilburn found Burr twice in a row for an easy finish to bring the Terriers’ goal count to nine. The sophomore tallied four goals against Lehigh, and credits his success to his teammates on offense.
“[My teammates] are everything,” Burr said. “Our seniors on offense — [attacker] Pat [Myers], [midfielder] Chad [Bell], and Cal — are really just leading us. We were really playing at a fast pace … credit goes out to those guys.”
Dearth scored the Terriers’ final goal unassisted. Carson-Banister and his defense had managed to keep the Mountain Hawks off the board for 43:47 until Lehigh snuck one in with just 26 seconds remaining in regulation to bring the final score to 10-4. BU head coach Ryan Polley attributes his team’s success to possession.
“We were able to not turn the ball over as quickly,” Polley said. “It was a total defensive effort, with guys following their rule sets and anytime we forced an outside shot, [Carson-Banister] came out with a big save.”
With its first-ever Patriot League Tournament win under its belt, BU will advance to the semifinals where they will look to continue to make program history.
“It’s definitely special, we’re all really excited about it because this is something that [we have been] working on since we’ve all come here,” Carson-Banister said. “But we’re not satisfied by any means because there’s so much left to play. Our goal coming into this season wasn’t to win one Patriot League game, so we’re gonna continue to be focused on that goal and to get one play and one game at a time.”
