WORCESTER, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's lacrosse team comeback fell short in an 8-7 defeat this afternoon to host Clark University in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference action at the Granger Athletic Complex in Worcester, Mass.
The Lyons dip to 8-5 overall and 3-2 in NEWMAC play, while the Cougars improve to 4-9 and 1-4.
Wheaton trailed by its largest margin, 8-4, with 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Lyons rallied back to score three straight goals within a 9:45 span. However, they were unable to muster a fourth straight marker to force overtime to provide the difference in the match.
Despite committing one fewer turnover (17 turnovers by Wheaton and 18 turnovers by Clark), the Lyons were out-shot by the Cougars 42-38. Clark led the ground ball margin 31-24 and held the face-off advantage 13-5.
Junior midfielder Jack Board (Westborough, Mass.) led Wheaton with a game-high three points with two goals and one assist, while classmate Charlie Racine (Oradell, N.J.) added two goals, a pair of ground balls, and won three face-offs. Senior defender Jacob Wharton (Worcester, Mass.) led the defense and tied a season-high six ground balls with four caused turnovers, while sophomore defender Pason Fielding (Carlisle, Mass.) tied a personal-best three caused turnovers. Junior goalie Connor Almstrom (Cumberland, R.I.) stopped 15 shots and recorded his ninth game with double-digit saves this season.
Senior attacker Matthew Minkwitz (Norfolk, Mass.) led Clark with three goals and tied a career-high four ground balls. Senior midfielder Patrick Liddy (Sutton, Mass.) added two goals with a pair of ground balls. Junior midfielder Mason Kauffmann (Middlebury, Vt.) scored a career-most two goals. Senior midfielder Attilio Lavecchia (Hamden, Conn.) dished out two assists. Senior attacker Colin Howard (Cincinnati, Ohio) tallied two points with one goal and one assist. Sophomore face-off specialist Patrick O'Rourke (Newton, Mass.) scooped up a career-high 12 ground balls and won 13 face-offs. Sophomore defender Lucas Cuda (Salinas, Calif.) led the defense with three caused turnovers. Graduate student goalie Dylan Harloff (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) stopped 10 shots and recorded his fourth victory of the season in goal.
The Lyons started off strong and got on the board first 59 seconds into the match when first-year attacker Theo Stamatel (Plainville, Mass.) found the back of the net to give Wheaton a 1-0 advantage. The Cougars responded with two straight goals scored by Minkwitz under a 9:00 span to give Clark the 2-1 lead with 5:10 remaining in the opening period. Clark stretched the lead to 3-1 when junior midfielder Harry Leduc (Norwood, Mass.) recorded his first collegiate assist, when he hooked up on a pass to Kaufmann who found the back of the net to give the hosts a 3-1 advantage with 2:25 remaining in the first period.
The defenses took over in the second quarter as both teams were held scoreless throughout the entire second period. The Lyons and Cougars struggled to generate offense, as both teams combined for 14 total shots in the second quarter (including a game-low six shot attempts in the second quarter by Wheaton and a game-low eight shot attempts in the second quarter by Clark). Almstrom was kept busy in net and had an excellent second period, which allowed the Lyons to hang in the game. He recorded seven of his 15 total saves during the second quarter. The Cougars entered intermission with a 3-1 lead.
After both offenses were held scoreless for just under 21:30 of game time, the Lyons took advantage of a Clark penalty when Racine scored the first man-up goal of the game on a pass from Board to push the score to 3-2 with 11:01 in the third period. Wheaton quickly responded 2:25 later to tie game at 3-3 when first-year attacker Mitch Tepedino (Southbury, Conn.) scored his lone marker of the afternoon with 8:34 remaining in the stanza. Both teams then traded goals to put the score 4-4 at the end of the fourth quarter.
After an extremely competitive first 45:00 of action (three ties and three lead changes), the Cougars erupted for a 4-0 scoring run during the first three minutes of the fourth period to give Clark its largest lead at 8-4 with 12:00 remaining in the game. After seeing a tie-game slip away from them, the Lyons were determined to battle back. Wheaton responded when sophomore midfielder Karter Noyes (Manchester Center, Vt.) found the back of the net with 9:31 on the timer to chip into the deficit and put the score 8-5. Later in the quarter, the Lyons capitalized again on the extra-man advantage when Board scored his second goal of the match with 3:51 left to play to push the score to 8-6. Wheaton's scoring run continued on a 3-0 rally when Racine found the back of the net for the second time of the game to cut the deficit to one with 2:15 remaining to make the score 8-7. In the end, the Cougars defense was able to hold the Lyons scoreless in the final 2:15 of play, as Clark prevailed to pick up the 8-7 victory.
Wheaton returns to action on Saturday, April 20 when its hosts NEWMAC rival Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 1:00 p.m. at Nordin Field, while the Cougars host nationally-ranked NEWMAC foe Babson College on the same day at 3:00 p.m.
