Box Score
Mike
Ryan Photos (password is ephlax)
Williams head coach of men's lacrosse George McCormack could not
care less who scores for his team, but he was impressed with the
contributions the first year class made in the Ephs 12-7 win over
Bates this afternoon on Renzie Lamb Field.
McCormack's Ephs entered play today with a 1-3 record and 0-3 in
NESCAC facing a Bates team that lost by two goals to perennial
NESCAC power Middlebury and thumped the Ephs' archrival Amherst,
9-4. "This was a necessary win for us, especially because every win
is hard to come by in NESCAC," stated McCormack "Our first years
[David] Hawley and [Tommy] Murray all scored for us and Hawley and
Murray with Dixon were our offense in the first quarter."
Don't ask McCormack about the second quarter though. "We need to
go out and play four good quarters every game," said McCormack. The
Ephs led 3-2 at the end of the first quarter, but then were held
scoreless in the second quarter.
Hawley netted the first two Eph tallies off of feeds from Murray
after Bates' Tyler Moore put the Bobcats on top at 14:06. Andrew
Roberto netted the final Eph tally of the opening session at 6:52
with Dixon Hargrove getting credit for the assist and lifting the
Ephs to a 3-1 lead.
Mike Medeiros netted Bates' second goal at 5:43 when he converted
off a pass from Justin Simon and the first 15-minute session ended
with the Ephs up one.
The Bobcats scored the only goal of the second quarter when Bryan
Frates scored at 11:11 with Craig Blake notching the assist.
At the end of 30 minutes Bates held a slight advantage in shots
9-7 and the Ephs were held to just a single shot in the second
quarter. Bates fired off 11 shots in the third quarter alone, while
the Ephs upped their shots in the third quarter to four. However,
all four of the Eph shots found the back of the net and Williams
took a 7-5 lead at the end of three quarters.
The Ephs' Michael Gerbush made three saves in the third quarter as
six of the Bobcats' attempts went wide.
Blake, who had assisted on the goal that tied the game at 3-3, put
Bates up 4-3 when he notched an unassisted tally at 14:13 of the
third quarter giving the Bobcats three unanswered scores.
Tommy Murray then triggered a three-goal spree by the Ephs when he
scored off a pass from Michael Lewen at 12:01, followed by
unassisted tallied by Eric Muller and Hawley. Hawley's score came
when the Ephs were a man down.
Blake again stemmed the tide of Eph goals at 5:08 of the quarter
when he scored unassisted.
Bryan Wrapp gave the Ephs a two-goal lead – 7-5 – at
the end of the quarter when he scored an unassisted tally coming
around the back of the goal and circling in from the right side to
score at 0:50.
Murray and Hargrove extended the Eph lead to 9-5 with Hawley
assisting Murray and Brian Morrissey setting up Hargrove.
Mike Medeiros then netted the Bobcats' final goal at 9:41 on a
solo effort.
The Medeiros goal was met with another Eph three-goal barrage with
Richard Reuter scoring a man-up goal assisted by Murray; Michael
Lewen and Murray teaming up on a textbook give and go and give with
White scoring and then David Hawley closed out the scoring in the
game with his fourth goal at 2:32 when he scored an unassisted
goal.
"Our team really showed up to play in the second half and that was
good to see because Bates is a good team and they gave us all we
could handle in the first half," said McCormack. "It was also good
to see Michael Vrla get on the field for the first time this year
because we really need him."
One of the keys in the Ephs win was the play of first year Corey
Jacobs in face-offs. Jacobs won 15 of 22 face-offs on the day.
"Jacobs had a day for us today," noted McCormack. "It sure seemed
like he won every face-off. That was impressive."
McCormack was also pleased to see how his bench made significant
contributions n the day. "We had some guys who normally don't play
a lot step up and play well and Tim White, Eric Muller and Andrew
Roberto also scored a goal."
Bates goalie Will Paddock made seven saves on the day, while the
Ephs' Gerbush made eight saves.
David Hawley led the Ephs with four goals and Tommy Murray added
two goals and three assists. Bates was led by Craig Blake who
scored two goals and assisted on two and Mike Medeiros who scored
two goals.
With the win the Ephs improved to 2-3 on the year and 1-3 in
NESCAC and Bates is now 2-6 overall and 1-3 in NESCAC.
Next up for the Ephs is a road contest on Wednesday at
Middlebury.
