Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Williams men's lacrosse got off to a hot start today, scoring the first four goals of the game and going on to win 9-7 to start their season with a three-game win streak.
Williams (3-0/ NESCAC 2-0) seemed to have everything going in their favor in the first quarter. At the end of the quarter Williams had opened up a three-goal lead with goals from Jack Lauroesch, Andy Grabowski, and Tanner MacIvor; Brian Bissell won every face off of the quarter for Williams.
Early on in the second quarter it seemed as if Williams would continue pulling away as Williams' Michael Fahey scored the first goal of the quarter with a rip to the top of the net from a few yards inside the restraining box.
At 9:02 Trinity (1-2/ NESCAC 0-2) got it's first goal of the game from Mathew Hauck. It was followed by another Trinity goal from Ryan DeSimone at 6:39. Williams was able to get the last goal of the half when Duncan Cummings passed to Chris McLaughlin, who had completely lost his man on a cut to the middle, for a goal at 5:56.
Ryan DeSimone scored the first goal of the third quarter for Trinity at 12:34; this goal wasn't on a man up play, but it did come just after a Williams penalty was released, before the player was able to make it back into the play.
Neither team was able to score for a while after that until Williams' Jack Lauroesch was able to juke his man so that he could bounce in a goal to the near post at 5:18. Then James O'Connell scored two goals for Trinity and the momentum seemed to be shifting in favor of Trinity. However, after the second goal Williams won the face off and went down and scored on a fast break where beautiful passing led to an easy goal for Andy Grabowski wh was assisted by Jack Lauroesch, despite an unnecessary roughness call on Trinity during the play. Tanner MacIvor scored another goal for Williams off an isolation play from the top of the box at 0:57, the final goal of the quarter.
Williams started the fourth quarter leading 8-5 but Trinity made a valiant comeback effort. Matthew Hauck scored the first goal of the quarter for Trinity at 11:51 off a Williams turnover to make it a two-goal game.
There were a lot of moments when it seemed as if Trinity would score to narrow the gap to one but those thoughts stopped at 6:52 when Andy Grabowski scored for Williams, coming around the right side of the goal from behind and ripping it into the net. Trinity still wasn't ready to give up. At 2:42 Michael Lofrese scored a goal for Trinity to bring the gap back to two but it never got closer than that. Williams was able to hold on and win the game 9-7.
Andy Grabowski scored three goals to lead Williams. James O'Connell, Ryan DeSimone, and Matt Fauck, who each had two goals, led Trinity.
"Today was a typical NESCAC game; both teams were similarly skilled, and both teams played hard," said Eph head coach George McCormack. That similarity of skill and effort was apparent on the field as both teams made a lot of big plays and sometimes that effort manifested in the form of big hits and penalties. There were ten time serving penalties in the game, five by each team.
Williams goalie Dan Whittam played the full game and allowed seven goals and had thirteen saves. The Bantams' Riley Cahill stopped 15 Eph shots, while allowing 9 goals in 60 minutes in goal.
"Dan Whittam had a fantastic game today; he had to make some saves we wouldn't like him to have to make but he played really well today," said coach McCormack. There were at least four plays where Trinity had great offensive plays and produced one on ones from near the goal on which Dan Whittam stepped up and made big saves. One in particular was in the 4th quarter shortly after Trinity's first goal of the quarter. Michael Lofrese cut to the middle and lost his man to get a shot on goal from a few yards outside of the crease with no defender on him. It seemed certain that he would score to bring the Williams lead down to one but Whittam saved the shot, and allowed Williams to keep its two-goal lead.
The next game for Trinity is March 11th, when they will host Western New England College. The next game for the Ephs is March 10th when they will host Castleton State.
