The youthful team has played five games this season, three of which have ended in one-goal differences. The team is 2-3 overall, and 1-2 in the NESCAC. "All of our games this year have been battles. Our league is so even that it is just unfortunate we have come out on the bad end of some games, like Tufts and Trinity [College]," said junior midfielder Robert Madden. "Our effort level has never been higher, and we are learning as a team to play smarter at every position. It was great to finally break through against Colby."
The first half of the game against Tufts was close, as the Jeffs and Jumbos traded scores. At the break the teams were tied at 5-5, with two of the goals coming from midfielder Joaquin Walker '06. Tufts took the lead in the third quarter, with the Jeffs trailing by two. A response from junior attackers Derek Cherney and Chris Hofmann, with a goal and assist respectively, narrowed the gap to one goal. But Tufts notched another two goals, and then traded tallies with Amherst's quad-captain midfielder Sean Murray '06 who notched an unassisted score.
With 6:12 left to play, the score stood at 9-7. A play from a pair of sophomore attackers brought the score within one, as Will Ferrer fired in a goal off of a pass from T.J. Jackson. With less than two minutes left in regulation, Hofmann had a near score. And in the final seconds, first-year attacker Tim Thornton came up short after an impressive stop by the Tufts goalie.
Stellar performances by senior quad-captain defender Andrew Wilcox, with four ground balls and six face-off victories, and first-year goalie Matt Pietroforte, with nine saves, were not enough to seal a victory. The close game against Tufts ended 9-8.
"The Tufts game was frustrating because we were able to take them to the last seconds of the game," said Murray '06. Murray also stated that the game "will give us confidence going forward knowing that if we play to our ability, we can play with and beat any team in our league."
Despite turning up short in close games against Tufts and Trinity, the men's lacrosse team knew had they ability to take home a win within the NESCAC. On Saturday they proved it. In another nail-biter, this time against Colby, the Jeff's fate landed them a well deserved victory.
The Jeffs opened the score with a goal from Hofmann off a feed from Ferrer. However, Colby capitalized on two man-up opportunities and took the lead with a score of 3-1. Cherney tightened the score at the end of the period with an unassisted goal. In the second, the Jeffs pulled ahead off of two goals from Hofmann and Murray. Colby returned the favor, racking up three straight to pull ahead by two. Closing up the half, Madden fired in a goal to bring the score to 6-5 in favor of Colby.
Ferrer tied up the game at 6-6 before Colby took the lead again off of two consecutive scores. The stellar youth of the Jeff's squad played a large role in the comeback to victory. Pietroforte stopped 17 shots between the pipes and snatched up four ground balls. Ferrer fed Miller twice in the fourth quarter to land the Jeff's two points. And Thornton also contributed to the score with a man-up goal off a fed.
But the game-winner came from the work of two of Amherst's more seasoned attackers. As time expired Murray rocketed in a shot off a pass from Cherney to seal the Jeff's victory. Senior defender Ben Lavely described the shot as such: "Cherney spotted through a banyan tree of sticks the pocket of Sean Murray. Magically the muses lifted his feet and guided [Sean's] hands with the swiftest of grace." The cheering of teammates and fans was enough to have made Murray's ears bleed.
The Jeffs defense held Colby to one goal in the stellar final session. Wilcox, Lavely and rookie defender Nick Gilligan snatched up six, three and three groundballs, respectively, to help keep the Jeff's on top.
The win was an important one for the Jeffs who face non-conference rival Western New England College today at 4 p.m. before seeing NESCAC foe Middlebury College on Saturday. "The win was the moral booster that we needed and I think we will use the Colby win to spur a winning streak," said Cherney. "I have extreme confidence in my teammates that we can put the first games behind us and look to our future schedule with optimism and confidence after our victory," added Madden.
NESCAC Notes
Tufts came up with another victory against Trinity, 11-4. Middlebury, who had a 17-2 record last year, has already been handed two defeats, the first from Springfield College, losing 11-10, and the second from Wesleyan University, dropping that game 10-7. Bates College edged out Williams College 8-6, but the Ephs returned the favor with a 13-6 victory over Colby.