The most recent winning streak of the Middlebury men’s lacrosse team came to an end on the afternoon of Saturday, April 11 with a road loss to a hot Bates team, who improved to 8-4 overall and 5-4 in the NESCAC following the win. With the loss the Panthers fall to 10-3 overall and 6-2 in NESCAC play, yet remain in the national top ten with a current ranking at number nine.
Fresh off an unexpected 12-8 victory against then top-ranked Tufts on Tuesday, April 7, the Bobcats came out with intensity on both sides of the ball. The first quarter turned out to be a push as both sides dumped in two, with the Bobcats opening up the game with an Andrew Melvin goal from a Charlie Hildebrand assist at 8:41 to go along with an unassisted Charlie Fay score to end the quarter.Middlebury saw goals from Cedric Rhodes ’17 on a 4:48 man-up assist from Henry Riehl ’18 as well as an unassisted effort by Tim Giarrusso ’16.
As the second quarter began, however, it became increasingly clear that the day simply belonged to Bates. Their stifling defense allowed only one Middlebury goal in the entire quarter, which came on another unassisted effort by Giarrusso who seemed to be one of the few Panthers playing at his highest level. In the same quarter the Bobcats pumped in four as Fay, an unstoppable force for the Bates’ attack, had three of his own to put him at four on the day by halftime to go along with Jack Strain’s quarter-opener at 9:29. At the half the contest sat at 6-3 in favor of the home side.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, Bates refused to become complacent with the halftime lead and instead came out just as hungry as they had in the previous quarter. Yet again their defense was able to shut down the Middlebury attack unit, which could only manage to add two goals in the quarter, one coming off an unassisted effort by Jon Broome ’16 and a second in the same fashion by Kyle Soroka ’16, who attempted to salvage some positives from the quarter with just 12 seconds left. The opposition had by far the most prolific quarter of the day on the other side of the field as the Bobcats scored seven in the quarter. This time the attack was led by Melvin, who with a goal and an assist in the quarter moved to five points on the day, and Kyle Weber, who scored three in a row starting at 9:27.
Though the final quarter was the Panthers’ best, marked by two opening goals from Broome to give him a hat trick for the game and a third by Jack Cleary ’16, it simply was not enough to overcome the 13-5 lead the Bobcats had built by the end of the third quarter. With yet another Melvin goal at 4:20 and a garbage time score from Sean Carroll ’16 at 1:57, Bates ultimately took the game, their first win over Middlebury in 28 contests, by a score of 14-9.
The Panthers will look to rebound and get back to their winning ways on Saturday, April 18 with a big home NECAC game against 4-8 Trinity who will be seeking only their third league win of the year. Yet, with only two regular season games left for the Panthers, the squad knows this is a big one.
