Second-half surge leads men’s lacrosse past Lowell

The Boston University men’s lacrosse team overcame a slow start to earn an 8-5 win over the University of Massachusetts Lowell at Nickerson Field Friday.

After only notching one goal in the first half, the Terriers (2-0) came out of the locker room a different team, scoring seven straight goals to close out the game against the River Hawks (0-1). Freshman attack James Burr scored four of the team’s first five goals to lead the comeback, and sophomore attack Jack Wilson scored twice in the final five minutes to secure the win. Wilson also recorded two assists in the contest.

Head coach Ryan Polley acknowledged Lowell’s competitiveness after the River Hawks outshot BU 17-6 in the first half and took a 4-1 lead.

“I give Lowell a ton of credit,” said Polley. “They were really prepared and excited and very similar to us last year, when we were unhappy with our record and ready to prove to the world that they were better than that. They took it to us in the first half, and without [junior goalkeeper Christian Carson-Banister], it could have been a 8-1 game going into the half.”

After letting up a quick goal to Lowell’s Sam Klingsporn just 1:10 into the third quarter, the Terriers began to look like the same team that never trailed in a 9-5 victory Feb. 6 over Providence College.

“I’m really proud of the way our guys regrouped and had a great second half and grinded it out,” Polley said. “Giving up that first goal, we didn’t panic, and the team responded and put some good possessions together.”

The Terriers, a team that many project to be nationally ranked soon, were the clear favorite in this one, as the River Hawks are a second-year program coming off a 1-13 season. However, BU fell behind three goals after Klingsporn tallied his second goal just 2:15 into the second quarter.

BU would get on the board with 1:01 left in the half, when Wilson found Burr in the crease, who easily found the back of the net. However, the Terriers would turn the ball over on the last possession of the quarter, which led to a quick Lowell goal with little time remaining.

Polley made it abundantly clear what the message was to his team after a poor first half.

“They were out-hustling us,” Polley said. “We needed to be the hungrier team. It’s real easy to motivate yourself. When you’re the underdog, the message is pretty clear. But when you’re the team that’s expected to win and you don’t play very hard, you’re down 4-1 and you’re outshot 17-6. So that was kind of the message, that we got to take it and we’ve got to earn it.”

With that message in mind, BU finally began to put it together on offense. The Terriers earned an extra man opportunity soon after and Burr took advantage, cutting the Lowell lead to three at the 11:57 mark. A little over a minute late, junior attack Sam Tenney beat goalkeeper Grant Lardieri off an assist from freshman midfielder Brendan Homire to bring the Terriers within two goals.

Then, with 5:25 remaining in the quarter, the Terrier’s stellar defense sparked a transition opportunity on offense, and Wilson again found Burr, who cut the Lowell lead to one. In the fourth quarter, it was all BU, as Burr would tie the game just over a minute into the quarter, sophomore midfielder Greg Farris gave the Terriers the lead with 8:46 left to play and Wilson tallied two goals at the end of the game to lock up the victory.

Polley noticed his team’s improvement in the fourth quarter of the game, just a week after being outscored 3-1 in the final stanza by Providence.

“It was just a carryover from the third quarter,” Polley said. “We were playing well in that third quarter, we were getting good possession and good shots and we were just sharing the ball better. I never want to call my team selfish, but in the beginning of the game, we did some things that were uncharacteristic of ourselves.”

Particularly, Polley took note of how everyone got involved on both sides of the ball as the game wore on.

“When we started sharing the ball, good things started happening and we started getting some really high-quality shots,” he said. “Even though we were down by a goal going into the fourth quarter, I still felt if we could continue what we were doing, then the result would be what it was.”