Lehigh University exposes Achilles’ heel of men’s lacrosse in narrow defeat

The offensive efficiency of the No. 20 Boston University men’s lacrosse team Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field against Lehigh University was eerily similar to the weather conditions: sloppy.

In an important Patriot League matchup, the Terriers (8-3, 3-2 Patriot League) had an uncharacteristic performance on the offensive end, turning the ball over 18 times in an 8-7 loss to the Mountain Hawks (6-4, 4-2 Patriot League).

After outscoring Lehigh 4-1 in the third quarter to claw back into the game, BU gave possession away six times in the final stanza, limiting its opportunities to put the Mountain Hawks away. Although the Terriers average 18.09 turnovers per game, the poor performance was more disappointing, considering the Terrier defense held Lehigh to 19 shots and eight goals.

“That’s something that we certainly want to get better at,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said of his team’s turnovers. “I thought we were a little careless in that fourth quarter. We had a couple empty possessions where there weren’t open looks, and guys were making circus catches to keep the ball in bounds. We just got to be more focused.”

The turnover problem made itself known right away to Polley and his staff, as BU coughed up the ball six times in the game’s first 15 minutes. Lehigh is first in the conference with 9.3 caused turnovers per game, and it hounded the Terriers in that aspect throughout the whole contest.

“I thought we had a great game plan going in — we saw a lot of the things we prepared for,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “Our defense retained the game plan extremely well. It was just a matter of following the plan, and once we got to that point, stepping up and being athletes and trying to prevent them from thinking too much and just being able to go out and play. I think we saw that for most of that game, and defensively, I think that effort kind of speaks for itself.”

Lehigh’s aggressive defense got to some of the Terriers’ best playmakers and scorers. Freshman midfielder Brendan Homire, the team leader in assists, gave the ball away five times. Sophomore attack Jack Wilson and junior midfielder Cal Dearth, two key cogs of the BU offense, each committed three turnovers.

Polley said his star players struggling to take care of the ball early on led to a more tentative attack as the game went on.

“Some guys had some turnovers in the first half and then they were a little hesitant to throw a through ball, or they threw a through ball and the guy intercepted it,” Polley said. “That was kind of on me. We tried to stay in our base and let the guys make plays.”

A clear-cut example of this came late in the third period with the score tied at five. Lehigh received two penalties in 32 seconds to give BU a rare two-man advantage, but the Terriers couldn’t get a decent shot on net.

Instead, Homire made an errant pass that Mountain Hawk defender Craig Chick intercepted with ease not even 30 seconds into the EMO. BU didn’t get possession back during the advantage, squandering a golden opportunity to lengthen its lead.

Polley credited both impressive defensive play from Lehigh and offensive execution errors as the consummate reason for an errant performance.

“They’re making the wrong read, and we try to force something,” the third-year head coach said. “Certainly, turnovers are a part of the game. They had eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, so it’s not as if they were turnover-free. Certainly, we had some opportunities, and we just didn’t really take advantage of it. [I’m] disappointed, and we’ll keep working on getting better at that.”