After a 17-11 victory on the road against Bellarmine University, the Boston University men’s lacrosse team traveled to Hamilton, New York, and used a late offensive surge to earn a 13-12 victory over Colgate University in the Patriot League season opener.
The Terriers (3-3, 1-0 Patriot League) started the scoring early with sophomore midfielder Jake Cates netting the first goal of the match just under two minutes after the opening faceoff. Freshmen attacks Thomas Niedringhaus and Louis Perfetto, as well as sophomore attack Timmy Ley all scored in the opening period, allowing the Terriers to end the first quarter with four goals.
BU head coach Ryan Polley stressed his pride in his squad’s offense for performing in a high-intensity situation.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them and how they responded under that pressure,” Polley said.
Despite BU’s offensive success in the opening part of the match, the Raiders (0-5, 0-1 Patriot League) fared even better. After the Terriers’ early goal, the Raiders quickly answered with senior attack Griffin Brown and junior midfielder Mike Hawkins scoring two quick goals to give Colgate a 2-1 lead.
Brown added another goal with 4:57 left in the period and then a third at the 2:11 mark. Sophomore midfielder Marshall Terres netted his first goal of the season shortly after Brown’s, allowing the Raiders to end the first period with a 5-4 lead.
Colgate’s offensive explosion continued into the second period, scoring another three goals to bring the total up to eight at the end of the half. Brown continued to be the dominant force for the Raiders offense, scoring two of the three goals in the second period, giving him a team-high five goals for the afternoon.
The other goal was scored by sophomore attack Brian Minicus, good for his third of the season.
The Terriers managed to score two goals in the second period, allowing them to keep the game within reach. Sophomore attack Matt Hilburn scored his first goal of the season early in the period at the 13:43 mark.
Hilburn was followed by junior attack Tommy Nook, who gave the Terriers life with a goal with just over two minutes remaining in the half, cutting the Raiders’ lead to two goals at halftime.
Despite Nook’s late goal, the Terriers came out flat to start the third period, while Colgate added two early goals to increase its lead to 10-6.
Polley recognizes that his team was inconsistent and stressed that the team had failures on offense across the board.
“I think it was a bit of everything,” Polley said, “We had a couple turnovers, a couple poor shots. We kind of failed on offense a whole bunch of different ways.”
When it looked as if BU was dead in the water, the Terriers’ offense came to life again at the end of the period. Freshman attack Vince D’Alto scored his 13th goal of the season with 1:31 left in the third quarter.
Cates then netted his second goal of the afternoon as time expired, with zeros showing on the clock as his goal flew into the net, slashing the Terriers’ deficit to 10-8 entering the final period.
The Terrier’s offense put out its best performance in the fourth period, scoring five goals. Ley, as well as D’Alto, who scored the winning goal with 1:53 left in the match, both added another goal, while Niedringhaus added two more, giving him a team-high three goals for the match.
Senior midfielder Jared Nugent was the lone new goal scorer of the period.
Colgate’s offense was kept in check during the final period, only scoring two goals, allowing the Terriers to secure the 13-12 victory.
Moving forward, Polley stressed that his squad still has areas where they can improve, but remains confident in his team’s ability to perform.
“I thought we did some things really well,” Polley said. “Obviously, there’s some things we have to work on early in the week.”
The Terriers will continue their Patriot League season at Nickerson Field against Bucknell University (5-1, 0-0 Patriot League) on Saturday, with faceoff slated for 1 p.m.
