The Boston University men’s lacrosse team clinched the third seed in the Patriot League Tournament with its win over the College of the Holy Cross. Now, BU (11-3, 5-3 Patriot’s League) will host Lehigh University on Tuesday night in the first round of the tournament.
The Terriers netted the first goal of the game when sophomore attacker James Burr converted an assist from senior midfielder Jack Beall, tallying his first of four goals during Friday night’s match.
A series of uncharacteristic turnovers for the Terriers in the first period led to two goals for Holy Cross (4-9, 4-4 Patriot League), both scored by senior Sean Kirkpatrick, to put the Crusaders in the lead.
Burr tied the game off of an assist from junior attacker Jack Wilson to even the score leading into the second period.
The Terriers had two goals in the first two minutes to put the Crusaders at a two-goal deficit. The first was scored by Burr, while the second came from senior attacker Cal Dearth, assisted by Wilson.
Junior Henry Lilly of Holy Cross shrunk the Terriers’ lead to one goal with an assist from Kirkpatrick.
Beall tallied his first goal of the season for BU with an assist from junior attacker Ryan Hilburn. This was followed by three consecutive goals for Holy Cross from freshman Sean Mullaney, junior Logan LeBlond and senior Jon Vogel.
The Crusaders did not hold on to the lead for long, as Dearth managed to sneak one past freshman goaltender Jonathan Tesoro for the tie.
The Terriers dominated the third period offensively with three goals. For the second time on Friday evening, one of 17 seniors tallied their first goal of the season for the Terriers as defenseman Cam Pincus scored an unassisted goal.
“I’m happy for Cam and Jack,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said. “Jack has been close to scoring a bunch this year, he’s one of the better [defensemen/midfielders] in the country … I’m actually surprised that he hasn’t scored this year … and then Cam made that great shot against their 10-man ride, so we’ve been practicing that all week and he just made a great shot on cage and so I’m kind of happy for those guys.”
Sophomore attacker Brendan Homire extended the Terriers’ lead over Holy Cross with a goal of his own. This was followed by Dearth’s third goal of the night to push the Terriers into the lead for the first time heading into the next and final quarter.
“I thought we came out and had a really good third quarter,” Polley said. “I thought we shared the ball very well like we always do.”
Just as BU had scored three goals in the previous period, Holy Cross returned to match these efforts with three goals as well.
Vogel counted two of the three while Kirkpatrick netted one. Vogel’s goal tied up the game for the fifth time that evening.
Burr stole the lead for the Terriers shortly after with his fourth and final goal of the match, but Vogel put the Crusaders back up on top with two goals.
Junior midfielder Hayden Ruiz brought the Terriers to an 11-11 tie with Holy Cross to push both teams into overtime.
Just as his teammate Burr did a week ago in the game against Loyola University Maryland, Dearth brought the win and the Turnpike Trophy home for the Terriers with his fourth goal of the match two minute into overtime.
“You try to run all those scenarios through your head when you’re a kid, and I couldn’t have asked for a better situation to be put in,” Dearth said. “It was just a great feeling to get it done for my team and for the other seniors.”
Friday night’s game was the last home game in the regular season for 17 seniors, the first group of seniors to have played all four years for BU men’s lacrosse. Despite the close of his playing time here at BU, Dearth is proud to have ended his career on a high note.
“It’s so good to get this win for the program, the other seniors on the team who have helped build it to what it is today, and to end out our careers at Nickerson [Field] in the regular season.”
