After an exciting fifth win on Tuesday night, the Boston University men’s lacrosse team will return to Nickerson Field and play the United States Air Force Academy on Saturday.
The Terriers (5-0, 1-0 Patriot League) go into their meeting with the Falcons (3-2) in the midst of their best start to a season in program history.
BU head coach Ryan Polley said the team is more confident after the consecutive wins, but he holds a lot of respect for Air Force’s well-coached team.
“I think we’ve got a confident group,” Polley said. “I think they know that if we just continue to worry about ourselves and get better everyday that we’re going to give ourselves an opportunity to win a lot of lacrosse games.”
The Falcons have been less successful, but they secured an impressive 11-10 win over No. 20 Duke University in the season opener.
On Sunday, Air Force had a 16-2 victory over Cleveland State University where both attacker Chris Walsch and midfielder Grant Gould registered hat tricks.
Walsch leads the Falcons with 18 points and is just one point shy of the Terriers’ top scorer senior midfielder Cal Dearth, who has notched 11 goals and eight assists.
Walsch, along with attacker and midfielder Nick Hruby, poses threats to BU’s defensive end, as Air Force takes 36.4 shots per game, averages 10.4 goals per game and has scored 25 unassisted goals.
However, Polley remains confident in the Terriers’ consistent defense.
“I think it’s going to be a combination of playing great on-ball defense,” Polley said. “If they do get a step or we decide that we want to slide a bit more, [we need to] be ready to do so and work as a unit to make sure that everybody’s covered up.”
The defensive unit, led by senior goaltender Christian Carson-Banister who has only allowed 34 goals this season, has remained a strong presence on the field, but BU’s offense will need to keep its momentum for 60 minutes.
The Terriers are led by strong players such as Dearth and junior attackers Ryan Hilburn and Jack Wilson, who have all proven themselves on the opposite end of the field. BU has registered 42 assisted goals out of 58 total, and its strong offense begins when the team maintains possession.
“It’s continuing to maximize and be efficient on offense, and not make silly mistakes like [at] Navy and some of our offense possessions against Bryant, when we’d just turn the ball over and don’t give ourselves an opportunity to score,” said Polley.
Junior midfielder and faceoff specialist Joe Stucky will play an important role in helping the team maintain possession. The Terriers are winning 50.9 percent of their faceoffs, which is almost parallel to the Falcons’ 49.6 percent success rate.
“Joe’s really been battling at the X,” Polley said. “It’s certainly going to be an important [role] as it is every game, but I really think that Joe’s going to continue to grind it out and do a great job.”
An area the Terriers must be wary of is the fact that they’ve let nine man-up goals find the back of the net, five of which were against Bryant (2-3) on Tuesday night. The Falcons are converting 43.8 percent of their opportunities on their man-up advantage.
Polley cited their man-down play as an area that needs to be improved before they take the field this weekend.
“We just got to play a little bit better and make better decisions where we’re not really executing,” said Polley. “Guys are a little bit in the wrong spot and have a little bit of a mind lapse that have led to some good opportunities [for the opposing team]. We played some good teams with some good scorers and they make you pay when you make mistakes.”
