Despite having three leads, the Boston University men’s lacrosse team was unable to overcome the United States Naval Academy during its first Patriot League matchup of the 2018 season, falling 10-8 at Nickerson Field Saturday afternoon.
The Midshipmen (2-2, 1-0 Patriot League) were paced behind five goals from senior attack Jack Ray and a hat-trick from junior midfielder Greyson Torain.
After having a poor second quarter, BU (2-2, 0-1 Patriot League) was able to bounce back in the third quarter, outscoring Navy 4-1.
However, the tides turned as the Midshipmen outshot the Terriers in the final quarter and put up three unanswered goals to finish the game.
“I gotta give Navy a lot of credit,” BU head coach Ryan Polley said. “I think they kind of took our best punch twice, coming out to that three-goal lead and then responding with the next five and then us getting four right out of halftime and being upset five. They kind of scrapped.”
Senior midfielder Hayden Ruiz, who finished the game with three points, got the Terriers on the board 2:05 into the first quarter.
Attacks freshman Chris Gray and senior Ryan Hilburn added to BU’s lead, as the Terriers took advantage of Navy’s four turnovers throughout the quarter.
But with 2:14 remaining in the opening frame, Ray beat BU sophomore goalkeeper Joe McSorley and began a five-goal offensive run for the Midshipmen.
After the five goals, Polley called a timeout in which he told his team it needed to play “like BU lacrosse.”
“… I don’t think we were intimidated, but we were a little bit passive,” Polley said. “I think we just had to get back to dodging hard, dodging with pace.”
Navy had 14 shots during the second frame, compared to its five in the first. The Midshipmen also held the Terriers scoreless and went into the half with a 5-3 lead.
Hilburn tallied another goal less than two minutes into the third quarter on an extra-man opportunity to get BU within one.
Senior attack Jack Wilson’s point streak was pushed to 47 straight games as he knotted the game with an upward-angled shot that went past Navy sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Kern.
The Manlius, New York native then fed the ball to junior attack James Burr who collected his eighth goal of the season.
Sophomore midfielder John MacLean, who did not play in the Terriers’ previous game on Tuesday against Dartmouth College, then capped the four-goal stretch.
BU also pulled together a solid defensive effort, collecting 10 ground balls over the first and third quarters.
Terrier senior defender and long-stick midfielder Isaac Lipton led the defense in place of sophomore defender and long-stick midfielder Chase Levesque, who was out for the second game in a row. Lipton totaled a career-high ground balls (four) and caused turnovers (five).
Ray and senior attack Dave Little kept their team alive, bringing the score line to seven even.
Wilson scored in the final frame to give BU a temporary 8-7 lead, but it proved not enough against Navy.
Ray notched his fifth and final goal of the contest after a behind-the-shoulder shot with 7:49 remaining.
While McSorley, who finished with 12 saves, kept the score tied with stellar saves, Torain cut through the middle of the field with 59 seconds left and blasted a shot past the Terriers’ goalkeeper.
“I think it’s just been our ability as a defense to not give up those really high percentage shots,” Polley said. “If we can do that, Joe’s going to make the saves a majority of the time and I thought we did a better job of keeping the shots to the outside except on [Ray].”
BU had a chance to knot the score after forcing a turnover, but was unable to get the ball down the field.
Following the Terriers’ timeout, Torain got the ball into the corner of the net.
“It’s kind of the inches of winning and losing, and they made one more play than us and that happens,” Polley said.
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