The Middlebury men’s lacrosse team extended its winning streak to five games last Saturday, March 14 with a convincing 11-9 victory against Wesleyan and an upset win over Endicott on Tuesday, March 17.
Instead of surviving early blows and relying on half-time adjustments to come out with a victory, as had seemingly become the norm, Middlebury stepped on the gas pedal early and never looked back.
The Panthers came out flying as they got up to a quick 2-0 lead in the first quarter following goals from Joel Blockowicz ’15, a beautifully bounced shot off a Tim Giarrusso ’16 assist, and Jack Cleary ’16. Yet the Panther defense failed to completely stifle the potent Wesleyan offense, which scored 13 goals against fourth-ranked Union College just three days earlier, as Cardinal Lyle Mitchell pumped in a goal in the closing minutes from a Matt Prezioso assist.
In the second quarter Middlebury continued to dominate early and often. The quarter again opened with the Panther offense taking it to Wesleyan. Blockowicz and Giarrusso each doubled their point totals on the day with a goal apiece, both unassisted. Though Wesleyan managed to stop the bleeding with a Niall Devaney goal at 4:14, Midd would simply not be stopped. Less than a minute later at 3:20 Sean Carroll ’16 scored his second of the year off a David Murray ’15 assist to give the Middlebury squad a 5-2 half-time lead.
Though Murray continued his strong play with a couple of nice fakes ultimately culminating in a goal to start the third, Wesleyan refused to be blown out. First-year Cardinal attackman Harry Stanton responded with two goals little more than a minute apart to pull Wesleyan back to within two. To end the quarter, however, Middlebury broke many a Wesleyan heart as Kyle Soroka ’16 capitalized on a Henry Riehl ’18 pass to convert on the man-up opportunity with only eight seconds left in the quarter.
Though Wesleyan would go on to score five in the final quarter, the last two came in garbage time when the game was far from their reach thanks primarily to an unprecedented single quarter hat trick from attack man Jack Rautiola ’16, who received assists from three different Panther teammates. One of these teammate was first-year faceoff sensation John Jackson ’18, who pulled off a tremendous 19-24 day at the faceoff x. This 79 percent mark in faceoffs was a key factor in pushing the Panthers to a conference win.
On Tuesday, The Panthers beat eighth-ranked Endicott 11-10. The game started off very even with both sides scoring two in the first quarter, however, Endicott surged ahead. The Panthers, however, are by no means strangers to fighting back from behind as two of their five victories on the year have come in such fashion. As such, the squad answered right back with four straight goals from four different scorers tying the game up before the Gulls dumped one more in at 1:19 to end the half with a 7-6 lead.
The third quarter proved to be more of the same with an early Endicott charge and an on par Middlebury response led by Giarrusso, who had a hat-trick on the day. Rautiola notched the game-winner with 3:26 to play and despite the Gulls’ attempts, the Panthers were able to maintain the narrow lead.
The team returns to action this Saturday when they face Bowdoin at home.
