Boxscore
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - Williams men's
lacrosse fell to Union Wednesday night on the road 7-6 after two
fourth-quarter goals gave the Dutchmen the vicotry. The Ephs are
now 4-6 on the season, while Union moved its record to 8-2. The
defeat is the team's third straight, all by two goals or
fewer.
Mike Ryan led the Eph attack with two goals and an assist, while
Corey Jacobs won 12 of the 17 faceoffs in the game and Eph
netminder Stephen Vrla stopped 9 shots.
Union was able to score the only goal of the first quarter,
though the Ephs outshot the Dutchmen 6-5 in the period. The start
of the second quarter saw Union apparently take control of the
game, as the Dutchmen scored three straight goals to take a 4-0
lead. The Ephs fought back, however; Ryan scored with 3:45 to play
in the half, then fed Tim Goggins for a goal 1:26 later to make the
score 4-2. With 0:46 on the clock, the Ephs were then able to pull
within one on a goal by Richard Reuter off a Sam Hargrove assist,
and the team entered the break with all the momentum going into the
second half.
The Ephs found a way to use that momentum coming out of the
break, as Adam Benjamin scored his first goal of the season off a
pass from Brian Wrapp to tie up the game 4-4 with 7:17 to play in
the third. Union was able to find a way past Vrla again with 3:44
remaining in the period, but another unassisted goal from Ryan
evened the game back up 36 seconds later. With 1:57 to play in the
period, Wrapp scored off a Goggins assist to give Williams its
first lead of the game, 6-5, going into the fourth quarter. Union
ultimately applied too much pressure in the fourth, however,
scoring twice to claim the 7-6 victory.
The Ephs outshot the Dutchmen 30-27 in the game; the team also
dominated the Union on loose balls, winning 41 ground balls to the
Dutchmen's 30. Turnovers, mixed by strong goaltending for
Union, combined to spell defeat for the Ephs: the team gave up
possession 17 times, while Union's netminder stopped 13 Eph
shots.
Eph head coach George McCormack felt there were strong
performances even in the loss. “We battled them pretty
hard,” he said. “We did very well with groundablls and
faceoffs. Offensively, Mike Ryan stood out and did some good
things, and Stephen Vrla had another good day.”
“It was a very frustrating game,” he added.
“We are going to use it to get motivated for our Little Three
rival [Wesleyan] this weekend. We are in the playoff hunt. There
are three games left in conference play and we're going to try to
get into playoffs and go from there.”
The Ephs will take on the Cardinals Saturday at home at 1 p.m.
