Despite the zero degree wind chill at Nickerson Field on Saturday, the Boston University men’s lacrosse team pushed its win streak to six games after a hard-fought 8-6 win against the United States Air Force Academy.
This was the first time the Terriers (6-0, 1-0 Patriot League) had faced the Falcons (3-3), and it came after facing tough tests from Bryant University and the United States Naval Academy.
“I did say to the team, in the seven day period we have Navy, Bryant and Air Force,” said BU head coach Ryan Polley. “Those three teams are all about toughness. They’re all about being disciplined [and have] great coaching staffs. The fact that we could get out 3-0 is a real tribute to this team and our effort and the coaching staff and the great job that they’re doing.”
Air Force got things started 12 seconds into the game when attacker and midfielder Nick Hruby found the back of the net after the Falcons won the first face-off.
Despite Air Force maintaining possession for most of the quarter, neither team scored again until attacker Chris Walsch broke through BU’s defense for his 12th goal of the season.
However, the following two quarters featured a turnaround for the Terriers as they went on to score seven unanswered goals.
Junior attacker Ryan Hilburn started the offensive response and cut the Falcons lead in half.
Freshman defense and long-stick midfielder Chase Levesque notched his first collegiate goal 90 seconds afterwards to knot the game.
“I think we had a good response,” Hilburn said. “We knew it was going to be a cold day and we came out a little cold kind of feeling sorry for ourselves, but once we got adjusted to it we started to have a lot of energy. We really battled back and eliminated that part of the game really well.”
Senior midfielder Cal Dearth contributed two goals of his own, as did Hilburn during the two-frame span to complete the hat trick.
After assisting Hilburn’s third goal of the afternoon, junior attacker Jack Wilson extended BU’s lead to 7-2 with a goal of his own to end the third quarter.
Much of this change was attributed to the fact that the Terriers maintained possession and limited their offensive turnovers.
“We have a really good offense, but we have to obviously value the ball and be efficient,” Polley said. “Every time we turn the ball over, that’s one less opportunity that we get to shoot the ball at the cage.”
BU’s defense was able to keep Air Force scoreless for over thirty minutes until midfielder Jack Flynn scored less than two minutes into the final frame.
Hruby followed suit and scored twice within four minutes to bring the Falcons within a two-goal margin.
However, with seven saves during the quarter, senior goaltender Christian Carson-Banister kept the Terriers’ lead until Wilson sealed the win with less than two minutes remaining.
“He’s just locked in right now,” Polley said of Carson-Banister. “I think our defense is doing a good job eliminating high percentage shots, but when we did break down a couple times in the fourth quarter he was just there to pick us up and make incredible saves.”
Hruby retaliated with 18 seconds left in the game for Air Force, but BU came out with the victory.
While the Terriers did not allow the Falcons to capitalize on any of their man-up opportunities, like the ones they struggled to defend on Tuesday, they were outshot 34-22 overall and by 15-2 in the final quarter.
Looking forward, BU will play Colgate University next weekend. Although this 6-0 start is the best in program history, the Terriers have only faced one Patriot League opponent.
“To be 6-0 feels great, but we’ve got a huge game next week,” Polley said. “What we’re really worried about is, ‘Okay, can we get better over the course of next week?’ We want to play our best ball in May so that’s really the focus right now, just getting us to a point where we’re getting better every single week and we’re going to peak in May.”
