Men's lacrosse leaves Cardinals seeing red

Author: Tom McCann

The Middlebury men's lacrosse team took to the road this past weekend, attempting to get its first road win of the season, before hosting Wesleyan later in the week. On Saturday the Panthers headed south to face Wesleyan College, familiar foes for the Middlebury men. The two teams last faced off for the NESCAC Championship last year, with the Panthers emerging 12-7 victors. This followed an equally tight encounter during the regular season that saw Middlebury emerge victorious by the slim margin of three goals in an 11-8 triumph. Returning to Kohn Field, the Panthers hosted Renssalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a team that Middlebury had not faced off against in more than four years. Familiar foes or otherwise, coach Erin Quinn's men were equally successful, emerging with two more regular season wins.

Having lost their first road game of the season to Gettysburg on March 13, it was imperative Middlebury did not allow the same to happen when on its travels again. Coming into the game a perfect 3-0, Wesleyan would have been confident of upsetting the Panthers on their home field, and after 10 minutes, with the score at 2-1 in favor of Middlebury, the hosts were well placed to mount an assault on the Panthers. As it happened, Middlebury switched gears and took the game well out of Wesleyan's reach. An eight-goal outburst before halftime gave the Panthers a commanding 10-1 lead heading into the break. During the 20-minute spell, the Panthers netted three times with a one-man advantage, and buried four goals as a result of their lethal efficiency on the fast break.

At that point, Wesleyan were looking at damage control rather than legitimately finding a way to get back into the game, a mood that would not have been helped by Jim Cabrera '08 netting his fourth goal of the game to give Middlebury a double digit lead. Wesleyan did manage to put four goals past the Panthers, but never looked worrying to the Panthers who led 12-5 at the break. Quinn's men came out for the final quarter and put the game to bed within the first few minutes, netting three more times, before finally riding out comfortable 15-7 victors, a surprising score given the relative parity between the teams last year.

While Cabrera continued to pace the Panthers' offense, Jonathan Sisto '06, Aaron Herter '06 and sophomore Nick Bastis added two goals each, while fellow sophomore Alex Palmisano made five saves between the sticks. The teams actually each fired 27 shots at goal, but Middlebury's accuracy proved far superior to its counterparts, leading to a blow-out and a first regular season win on the road.

Keen to build on its gathering momentum, Middlebury took to the field on Tuesday afternoon against RPI in an attempt to continue its unbeaten streak on Kohn Field. The streak was thrown into doubt early in the game as RPI raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter before Cabrera put Middlebury on the board. The visitors pushed the lead back out to two in the second quarter before Cabrera answered back once again for the Panthers, cutting the RPI advantage to 3-2 at the halfway stage.

The best teams separate themselves from the good teams by finding a way to get the job done when they need to. The best players also step up when their team most needs them, and thankfully for Middlebury, Co-Captain Dave Leach '05 was not about to see his team overcome. During a five-goal run started by Cabrera's goal, Leach assisted on two goals before bagging one of his own as Middlebury ran the rule over RPI, opening up a 6-3 lead. With one quarter to play, the teams were still three goals apart, with the Panthers leading the resilient RPI men 7-4.

The teams traded man-up goals in the final stanza before Co-Captain Mike Murray '05 added one more for Middlebury at the 1:29 mark to seal the deal. After trailing at halftime, the Panthers outlasted RPI for a hard-fought 9-5 victory, extending their win streak to three and ensuring a 5-1 record before this coming weekend.

On Saturday, April 9, the men will once again look to defend Kohn Field when Amherst comes to town. The last time the Panthers locked horns with Amherst was in the NESCAC semifinal last year. On that occasion, the Panthers got the better of the Lord Jeff's by a score of 7-2, although only leading 3-2 heading into the final quarter of play. Amherst, currently 4-1, will no doubt be looking for revenge against the Panthers, who will need to be at their best to continue a win streak that is now at four games and rising.