Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College men's lacrosse team (6-0/NESCAC 4-0) opened up a 5-0 lead in the first quarter this afternoon in downing Bates (3-3/NESCAC 1-3) 11-5 on Farley-Lamb Field.
The win by the Ephs snapped a two-game Bates win streak and extended their own win streak to six.
Five different Ephs scored in the first quarter. At 13:43 Bryson Gilbert-Bono notched the first goal of the game off a pass from Tanner MacIvor. Gilbert-Bono then assisted on an Andy Grabowski goal to make it 2-0 at 11:59. Jack Lauroesch scored an unassisted tally at 8:14. Steven Kiesel scored off a feed from Chris McLaughlin (6:22) to make it 4-0 Williams.
"We were kind of well rested, not having a midweek game," said Eph head coach George McCormack. "It's a tough week with midterms, but the kids were relieved to be done with the midterms and they came out and shared the ball and got good shots. Our offense as a unit played really well the entire game."
Thomas Fowler closed out the first quarter with an unassisted goal with just three seconds remaining.
Bates' first goal came at 13:37 of the second quarter when Andy Melvin was setup on a pass from Charlie Hildebrand. Grabowski answered for the Ephs with an unassisted score at 10:13 and that ended the scoring in the first half, leaving Williams with a 6-1 lead at the break.
Williams netted the first two goals of the third quarter with one each from Kiesel and MacIvor and Bates matched the two Eph tallies with goals from Jack Allard and Jack Strain.
Twelve seconds after the Strain tally the Bobcats were back on the attack and hoping to seize some momentum as Andy Melvin was in alone on Whittam, but Melvin's shot from seven yards out was deflected by Whittam onto the field of play and recovered by the Ephs defense. At the end of three quarters the Ephs led 8-3.
"Our objective on defense is to take away the good angles and force low percentage shots, " McCormack added. When we do that Dan Whittam gets a good look at their shots. I thought Ryan Hamilton and John Maimone-Medwick rose to the occasion today to play their two best offensive players tough. Brian Bissell did a good job again on the face-offs."
Again in the fourth quarter the Ephs struck first and this time Williams ran off three goals before Bates scored its fourth goal. Grabowski, Kiesel and Michael Fahey scored for Williams. The two Bates goals came from Jack Allard and his first was unassisted and on the second Jack Strain was credited with an assist.
The Bobcats were led in scoring by Allard who netted three goals on the day. Bobcat goalie Joe Faria stopped 15 of 26 shots on goal in 60 minutes of play.
The Ephs were led in scoring by Andy Grabowski and Steven Kiesel who each scored three times. MacIvor and Gilbert-Bono each registered two assists in the contest.
Eph senior goalie Dan Whittam turned aside 15 of the 20 shots on goal, allowing five goals in 58:16. Miles McCarthy played the final 1:44 and was not called on to make any saves.
Next up for Bates is a March 25th game at Keene State at 5:00 p.m., while the Ephs will head south where they will face #4 nationally ranked Union College in Boca Raton, FL on the 24th at noon.
