The Boston University men’s lacrosse team will wrap up its season Sunday, when it travels to Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, to square off against No. 5 Duke University.
This will be the Terriers’ (6-7, 3-5 Patriot League) first game in over two weeks, their last being a 12-10 loss to the College of the Holy Cross at Nickerson Field on April 17. Freshman attacks Jack Wilson, Ryan Hilburn and sophomore attack Adam Schaal each had two goals apiece in the contest.
The reason why BU has not played in so long is because it failed to qualify for the Patriot League tournament after dropping its last five league games. With one final match left to play, BU coach Ryan Polley said the Terriers have had a lot of time to avoid getting rusty and work on their offense, which has averaged only 7.6 goals during their losing streak.
“We’ve been practicing hard the past two weeks,” he said. “We took a couple days off after Holy Cross and had practices a couple of times the last week. Now we’ve been going pretty hard. Certainly, we try to simulate Duke and what they do and try to prepare for them, but we’ve been going pretty hard with longer practices, trying to keep the guys focused and from becoming rusty.”
Despite missing the league tournament, the Terriers have made great strides as a program in only their second season being a varsity club, as their 6-7 record is a big improvement over their 2-12 record from the 2014 season. The best example of this progress is sophomore midfielders Cal Dearth and Sam Talkow being named to the All-Patriot League First Team and Second Team, respectively. They are the first Terriers to do so.
Dearth leads BU in points with 41 and has had two seven-point games this season. Talkow is third in the country in faceoff-win percentage, with 66.2 percent, and ranks 10th in ground balls per game, with 7.31.
“I thought it was really well deserved by both of them,” Polley said. “It’s great recognition for the program, and I’m really happy for them. They both had tremendous years not only in the Patriot League, but also outside of it, in non-conference play. I’m just happy that it was voted by the coaches of the league, and I was happy that the coaches saw the same thing we see on a daily basis.”
There’s no doubt that the Terriers will have their hands full when they take on the Blue Devils (10-5), who are the two-time defending NCAA Championships. Duke is led by midfielder Myles Jones, who has totaled an astounding 39 goals and 34 assists so far.
The Blue Devils are also led on offense by attacks Justin Guterding and Jack Bruckner, who have combined for 87 goals this season. Polley said he knows his team will have its hands full trying to stop Duke’s offense.
“Certainly, we have to keep them out of transition,” Polley said. “They get a lot of early offense by pushing the ball and getting it to the attack. They’re so well balanced. They have a great attack, and a great midfielder in Myles Jones, who will probably be midfielder of the year.
“We’re going to do everything we can to control the tempo of the game. Hopefully win face-offs and get the ball to our offense, along with being efficient there and taking time off the clock to try to make sure we’re in the game in the second half,” he added. “We’ve played some great teams this year, so we kind of know what to expect, and hopefully we play the best that we can, and we’ll go from there.”
Nick is currently writing for the Boston Hockey Blog. In the past, he has served as associate sports editor, and has covered men's and women's cross-country, women's soccer, men's basketball, and men's lacrosse for the Daily Free Press. You can keep track of Nick's exciting life by following him on Twitter at @nikfraz14
