Men’s lacrosse drops a rare game to Amherst, takes it out on Polar Bears

This past week was a week of firsts for the Middlebury men’s lacrosse team, not all of them positive. Last Wednesday saw the seventh-ranked Panthers, 6-2, 4-2 in NESCAC, break a 22 game winning streak against 12th-ranked Amherst College, 8-1, 4-1 in NESCAC, that dated back to 1989. Following the disappointing loss, however, Middlebury traveled to Bowdoin College and defeated the Polar Bears, 3-6, 1-5 in NESCAC, on Saturday to get back on the winning track with their first road win of the year.
The rare loss at Amherst may cause some concern, but according to Quinn Cronan ’14, living up to the history of the match-up was not at the forefront of the team’s agenda.
“We had all heard about the history between the two teams, but I don’t think we were thinking about it going into the game,” said Cronan. “We try to enter every game with the same mentality, and Amherst was a good team with some good athletes and they proved to be a worthy opponent.”
The match up against the Lord Jeffs proved to be a back and forth affair, with Middlebury holding a 7-6 lead with around eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, after Alex Englert ’12 scored off a feed from Mike Giordano ’13, the team leader in number of assists. However, a quick three-goal scoring spree that lasted just over a minute put Amherst ahead 9-7 with 3:30 left in the game, which proved to be the final. Perhaps one of the most glaring problems was the absence of David Hild ’11 on the score sheet. Says Cronan, the development of the attack force has been an important part of the team’s success.
“Hild and Giordano together are a great combination. Mike has great vision and he can create a lot of plays, and this combined with the scoring abilities of Hild and Tim Cahill ’12 is essential to our offense,” said Cronan.
The 16-goal outburst by the Panthers in Brunswick on Saturday may have much to do with Hild getting back in the offensive act. Hild led the way with five goals and a career-high three assists as Middlebury opened up a sizeable lead in the second-half and never looked back. Alongside Hild’s performance, the team was also helped out by Giordano, one goal, three assists; Cahill, five goals; and Andrew Conner ’11, three goals, one assist, en route to a 16-12 win.
In addition to superb offensive talent, the team has also been bolstered in goal by Ryan Deane ’11, considered by many to be the top goalie in the NESCAC.
“Deane has been incredible for us thus far. He is an extremely talented goalie and he has come up with some huge saves for us this year,” said Cronan. “His goaltending play and his role as a captain are crucial parts of our team.”
Over spring break the Panthers played in three games, all of which they won. They kicked off these games with a 11-6 win against Colby. The team continued on to beat Wash. & Lee, 6-5 and Colby 11-6.

The Panthers play two more games on the road this week against Skidmore, Tuesday and Trinity, Saturday. They will then return home to play Rennselaer and undefeated NESCAC rival Tufts to just about close up the regular season of play.