When the No. 20 Boston University men’s lacrosse team faces off against Providence College, the winner almost always emerges after a hard-fought battle with a one-goal win in hand. For the Terriers (1-0), Saturday afternoon’s 12-11 overtime victory was no different.
“Just a great team win and [I] couldn’t be more proud of the guys and their no-give-up effort … We talk about having that mentality of grinding out a win and we definitely grinded that win out,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said.
Sophomore midfielder John MacLean notched a career-high four goals in the contest, including the overtime winner, which was assisted by the Terriers’ highly touted freshman attack Chris Gray.
Gray finished the game with two goals and three assists in his collegiate debut.
“He’s definitely a good playmaker that’s a good addition to us,” junior attack James Burr said of Gray. “I think he’s still progressing too, he’s still maturing. He’s only getting better so that’s going to really help our offense in the long run.”
With BU’s former goalkeeper Christian Carson-Banister having graduated last year, sophomore goalkeeper Joe McSorley went between the pipes for the first full game of his career and finished with 12 saves.
“I mean what a game to start your career in. It was a huge rollercoaster of a game,” McSorley said. “I wasn’t really seeing the rock from inside [during] the first half, and when I came in for halftime, I was like I just need my defense to give me a couple popcorn saves and then I got hot, and that’s what happened.”
Despite the win, Providence (0-1) sophomore midfielder Sean Leahey was a force to be reckoned with and scored five goals over the 60 minutes.
The Terriers also found themselves going back-and-forth in the first quarter before Providence pulled ahead at the end of the half.
Burr got the Terriers on the board first with a hard shot in front of the net at 13:17. Senior attack Ryan Hilburn extended BU’s lead to 2-0 after a nice feed from senior attack Jack Wilson.
The Friars went on to score twice in a three-minute span to even the scoreline.
BU struggled to get through Providence’s defense until Burr gave his team a 3-2 lead on the man-up advantage, but the Friars knotted the score with one second remaining in the opening quarter.
The Terriers struggled at the faceoff dot throughout the first half, which hindered their ability to gain offensive possession. Senior faceoff specialist and midfielder Joe Stucky took a majority of the draws while freshman faceoff specialist and midfielder Sean Christman had a few attempts, as the pair went 7-for-18 at the X.
Providence took two separate two-goal leads throughout the second quarter and ended the first half with a 9-7 lead after midfielder Damon Currie bounced in a shot past McSorley with five seconds remaining in the half.
Attack Brendan Kearns pushed the Friars’ lead to 10-7 in the beginning of the third quarter.
However, Polley said that the goal-deficit didn’t affect his team.
“I think our team just has a lot of confidence in itself and we’re not afraid to play from behind,” Polley said. “I think we know we have a really good offense. I don’t want to say no lead is [insurmountable], but I think we know we can score goals quickly and I think we know we can score on a moment’s notice…”
BU was able to get within one again due to goals from Gray and attack and midfielder Tommy Nook, and McSorley’s five saves.
Nook tallied his first collegiate goal and senior midfielder James Burke got his first collegiate assist on the marker.
Polley noted this season’s team’s offensive diversity.
“I think that’s the exciting part about us, is how balanced we are … I think it’s going to be really hard for teams to prepare for us because at any one moment we could have one of those eight guys kind of go off,” Polley said.
MacLean tied the game for the Terriers late in the fourth quarter, but Leahey kept his team in the game with a goal at 1:38 to go.
BU capitalized on a Providence turnover, which would prove deadly, as senior midfielder Hayden Ruiz passed the ball to Hilburn, who got it past junior goalkeeper Tate Boyce with 7.8 seconds left in regulation.
The Terriers were able to maintain possession of the ball for the entire five-minute extended period after their man-up opportunity, rattling off seven shots. Gray got the ball to MacLean who ripped it into the back of the net.
“I was just talking with Chris Gray before that man-up happened, and he said that if the defenseman takes any step off of either of us, we’re going to feed each other and take that shot,” MacLean said. “That’s kind of just what happened. I took my shot and it just happened to go in.”
