For the second week in a row, the No. 19 Boston University men’s lacrosse team won in overtime after its thrilling 12-11 win against the College of the Holy Cross.
The Terriers (11-3, 5-3 Patriot League) are now 3-0 in overtime this season, but the win over the Crusaders (4-9, 4-4 Patriot League) would not have been possible without stellar performances from sophomore attacker James Burr and senior midfielder Cal Dearth.
Burr and Dearth each found the back of the net four times to score two-thirds of BU’s 12 goals during the contest.
“It feels awesome,” Dearth said of his team winning in overtime. “I have never been a part of something like that, and it’s just so good to get this win for the program and [for] the other seniors on the team who have helped build it to what it is today and to end our careers at Nickerson [Field] in the regular season.”
Burr opened the scoring of the game. However, Holy Cross responded with two goals of its own.
With two seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Hamilton native knotted the game when junior attacker Jack Wilson fed him the ball in front of the net.
Then, less than two minutes into the second quarter, he found the open net and collected the hat trick.
Last weekend, Burr scored the game-winning goal in overtime and had another pivotal goal against the Crusaders to give the Terriers a 10-9 lead during the fourth quarter.
Burr went from around the back of the net and fired the ball into the net for his fourth goal of the night.
“[Burr] is a great scorer,” said BU head coach Ryan Polley. “That’s probably his best attribute. He’s around the goal. He understands offense, likes to float to open space. His goal to put us up one in the fourth was big. We kind of went a while without scoring and he turned that cage and made that nice shot, so he’s playing good lacrosse for us right now.”
Burr rounded off his strong performance, collecting three ground balls and causing one turnover.
The sophomore has started in junior attacker Ryan Hilburn’s spot for three games in a row, but Polley notes this decision was due to his scoring abilities.
“Ryan’s a little bit more of a feeder,” Polley said. “James is a bit more of a scorer and Jack had been doing a really nice job distributing the ball. We just wanted to put one more scorer out there. Ryan still plays, and a lot of the time we’ll put him in attack and put James back to midfield.”
Burr’s teammate Dearth had key goals of the night, including one that tied up the game with four minutes before the end of the first half.
Three out of his four goals were unassisted, which showcased his strong presence on the field.
Although Dearth did not register any assists, Polley highlighted the fact that he sets up important plays.
“He’s just so unselfish and he sees the field so well,” Polley said. “He’s just a great player, so I’m not surprised when he has five assists, and I’m not surprised when he has four goals.”
While Dearth has led the Terriers in almost all aspects of the game, and his strong offense is expected, he was able to score when it mattered most as the team honored its seniors.
After a nice set up from Burr, Dearth shot the ball past Crusaders’ freshman goaltender Jonathan Tesoro less than two minutes into overtime for the win.
After a five-goal game last weekend, Dearth has now totaled nine goals in the past two contests.
“We’re going to miss him dearly,” Polley said. “But we got a couple more games with him and want to go out on top and can make a really nice run in this Patriot League tournament.”
