Ephs LaCrosse Score Over Rival Bates
WILLIAMSTOWN — Williams College head coach of men's lacrosse George McCormack could not care less who scores for his team, but he was impressed with the contributions the first-year class made in the Ephs 12-7 win over Bates on Saturday afternoon on Renzie Lamb Field.The Ephs entered play with a 1-3 record and 0-3 in NESCAC facing a Bates team that lost by two goals to perennial NESCAC power Middlebury and thumped the Ephs' archrival Amherst, 9-4.
"This was a necessary win for us, especially because every win is hard to come by in NESCAC," said McCormack "Our three first-years [David] Hawley, [Tommy] Murray and [Eric] Muller all scored for us and Hawley and Murray with Dixon were our offense in the first quarter."
Don't ask McCormack about the second quarter though. "We need to go out and play four good quarters every game," he said. The Ephs led 3-2 at the end of the first quarter, but then were held scoreless in the second quarter.
Hawley netted the first two Eph tallies off of feeds from Murray after Bates' Tyler Moore put the Bobcats on top at 14:06. Andrew Roberto netted the final Eph tally of the opening session at 6:52 with Dixon Hargrove getting credit for the assist and lifting the Ephs to a 3-1 lead.
Mike Medeiros netted Bates' second goal at 5:43 when he converted off a pass from Justin Simon and the first 15-minute session ended with the Ephs up one.
The Bobcats scored the only goal of the second quarter when Bryan Frates scored at 11:11 with Craig Blake notching the assist.
At the end of 30 minutes, Bates held a slight advantage in shots 9-7 and the Ephs were held to just a single shot in the second quarter. Bates fired off 11 shots in the third quarter alone, while the Ephs upped their shots in the third quarter to four. However, all four of the Eph shots found the back of the net and Williams took a 7-5 lead at the end of three quarters.
The Ephs' Michael Gerbush made three saves in the third quarter as six of the Bobcats' attempts went wide.
Blake, who had assisted on the goal that tied the game at 3-3, put Bates up 4-3 when he notched an unassisted tally at 14:13 of the third quarter giving the Bobcats three unanswered scores.
Tommy Murray then triggered a three-goal spree by the Ephs when he scored off a pass from Michael Lewen at 12:01, followed by unassisted tallied by Muller and Hawley. Hawley's score came when the Ephs were a man down.
Blake again stemmed the tide of Eph goals at 5:08 of the quarter when he scored unassisted.
Bryan Wrapp gave the Ephs a two-goal lead (7-5)at the end of the quarter when he scored an unassisted tally coming around the back of the goal and circling in from the right side to score at 0:50.
Murray and Hargrove extended the Eph lead to 9-5 with Hawley assisting Murray and Brian Morrissey setting up Hargrove.
Mike Medeiros then netted the Bobcats' final goal at 9:41 on a solo effort.
The Medeiros goal was met with another Eph three-goal barrage with Richard Reuter scoring a man-up goal assisted by Murray; Michael Lewen and Murray teaming up on a textbook give and go and give with White scoring and then David Hawley closed out the scoring in the game with his fourth goal at 2:32 when he scored an unassisted goal.
"Our team really showed up to play in the second half and that was good to see because Bates is a good team and they gave us all we could handle in the first half," said McCormack. "It was also good to see Michael Vrla get on the field for the first time this year because we really need him."
One of the keys in the Ephs win was the play of first year Corey Jacobs in face-offs. Jacobs won 15 of 22 face-offs on the day. "Jacobs had a day for us today," said McCormack. "It sure seemed like he won every face-off. That was impressive."
McCormack was also pleased to see how his bench made significant contributions n the day. "We had some guys who normally don't play a lot step up and play well and Tim White and Andrew Roberto also scored a goal."
Bates goalie Will Paddock made seven saves on the day, while the Ephs' Gerbush made eight saves.
David Hawley led the Ephs with four goals and Tommy Murray added two goals and three assists. Bates was led by Craig Blake who scored two goals and assisted on two and Mike Medeiros who scored two goals.
With the win the Ephs improved to 2-3 on the year and 1-3 in NESCAC and Bates is now 2-6 overall and 1-3 in NESCAC.
Next up for the Ephs is a road contest on Wednesday at Middlebury.
