The men’s lacrosse team suffered another tough loss Saturday, falling in an away match against archrival Williams College, 8-4, to drop to 2-4 in NESCAC standings. The Jeffs get a week off but are in for another tough match against 13th-ranked Wesleyan next Saturday to close out Little Three play for the 2009 season.

The Ephs got out to a strong 4-0 lead, from which the Jeffs never recovered. Williams scored within the first 10 seconds of the game off an unassisted goal by sophomore Corey Jacobs and only needed another four minutes to score a second time.

Senior quad-captain goalie Matt Pietroforte was unable to stop a last minute shot, leaving the Jeffs to trail 0-3 at the end of the first period.

Both teams were slow to start the second frame, with neither scoring in the first five minutes of play. The Ephs scored with 9:42 left in the second period to extend their lead to four before the Jeffs finally responded with a tough play from rookies Evan Redwood, Alex Fox and Matt Rawson.

Redwood scored the first Amherst goal of the game on an unassisted goal with 6:07 remaining in the period. Followed by a goal from Fox less than a minute later in a man-up opportunity off an assist from Rawson the Jeffs cut the Eph lead in half. However, Williams responded with another last-minute goal to end the frame still in possession of their three-goal advantage.

The third frame was much quieter, with Williams scoring the only goal of the period with 11:09 remaining in the period. The Ephs opened up the final period of the game with two goals to give themselves a comfortable lead.

Refusing to give up, the Jeffs scored the final two goals of the game. Cole Cherney ’12, in a day filled with first-year standouts, and Brett Miller ’09 picked up the final two goals for the Jeffs, but with only 1:22 to play after Miller’s goal, the Jeffs ran out of time.

The loss puts the Jeffs at eighth place in NESCAC standings, just barely making the playoffs. Only three games remain in the NESCAC season, and the Jeffs have a hard schedule ahead of them. Nationally-ranked Wesleyan University is Amherst’s next NESCAC opponent, which will be a challenge that Jeffs will have to prepare for. The next competitor is Trinity College, unranked but receiving votes in the national poll. Colby College will be the last conference matchup of the season, which promises to be a tossup since the Mules who happen to rank just above the Jeffs in the seventh slot.