The Boston University men’s lacrosse team will star in its first ever Patriot League playoff games when it hosts Lehigh University in the quarterfinals at Nickerson Field Tuesday.
The Terriers (11-3, 5-3 Patriot League) are fresh off their second overtime win in a row after senior midfielder Cal Dearth scored the game winner against the College of the Holy Cross.
“Anytime you can win a close game it is just so meaningful for your season,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said. “As you get later in the season, everybody’s pretty good. They’re playing their best lacrosse so most games are going to be relatively close, so to be able to win two games in overtime after kind of the heartbreaking loss to [United States Military Academy], was just really exciting.”
While the Terriers have had recent success, it does not erase their 10-6 loss to Lehigh (7-6, 4-4 Patriot League) that occurred earlier this month.
BU was highly successful on the ground ball battle and even ended the first quarter with a 3-2 lead, but 22 turnovers ultimately cost it the game.
The Terriers have limited their turnovers to 13 or fewer in the last three games since their matchup with the Mountain Hawks. However, Polley stressed the importance of ball security.
“We made some poor decisions with our stick work and we forced some things,” Polley said. “We’ve worked really hard over the last couple weeks. We were worried about Holy Cross and their early sliding and 10-man ride. We were perfect in the clearing game and I think we had 13 turnovers so that was where we want to be.”
Lehigh’s freshman Conor Gaffney has a success rate of 60.5 percent at the center X. Although, junior midfielder and faceoff specialist Joe Stucky wins 54.6 percent of his faceoffs and collected 21 ground balls over the past three games.
Stucky will be especially key in getting the ball to the Terriers’ offense, which has averaged 11.3 goals per game.
After a four-goal game last weekend and a six-point game against Loyola University Maryland, Dearth leads the team with 47 points.
Dearth, alongside junior attacker Jack Wilson and sophomore attacker James Burr, will be offensive catalysts on Tuesday.
Dearth and the other 17 seniors’ leadership will be important for the team.
“We’re going to lean on them to just do what they’ve done all season and be the leaders of the team, be our best players and continue to lead us forward,” Polley said. “Our goal was to get better today in practice and get better in our game on Tuesday and just play our best game.”
Goaltenders sophomore Chris Kiernan and senior Donny Stires have split time in the cage this season. However, Stires has started the last three games and made 11 saves to lead Lehigh to a 9-6 win over Bucknell University on Friday. Stires was also in net when the Mountain Hawks beat the Terriers on April 1.
Attackers Tristan Rai and Matt Raposo both lead the team in assists with 22 and 21, respectively.
“They strive in transition and keeping our turnovers down will certainly help in that regard,” Polley said. “A lot of their goals are assisted because they are very unselfish and they’re excellent off ball, so certainly we’re going to try to make them dodge and beat our guys one-on-one and try not to allow them to be [comfortable] and make those feeds they’re so good at.”
Senior Ian Strain has also stepped up as an important asset to the Mountain Hawks’ offense after notching a hat trick last weekend. He has now collected eight goals and four assists over the past four games.
The Terriers’ defense has remained a consistent aspect of the team with senior goaltender Christian Carson-Banister and senior defenseman Dominick Calisto.
This top-ranked defense will be especially important if BU allows Lehigh any man-up opportunities, as the Mountain Hawks have been successful 41.2 percent of the time on power plays.
Carson-Banister will need to be just as solid as he has been all season long if the Terriers are to move on, but the senior is just excited to start in a playoff game.
“[I’m] just looking forward to that first whistle,” Carson-Banister said. “This is something that we’ve all believed that we could achieve when we first came here and now that it’s come to fruition, I think that we’re all excited and we’re ready to seize the moment.”
