WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. -- Coming off a big win against Bates and looking to maintain their lossless record in NESCAC play, the Williams College Ephs (2-1,1-0) hosted the Wesleyan University Cardinals (4-0,1-0). These two teams have decades of history playing against one another. Williams would ultimately struggle through penalties and consistent pressure from the undefeated Cardinals, falling 13-10.
After an initial push by Wesleyan, the Ephs'
Matt Wetmore would come up with a few huge saves that would keep the game at 0-0 until
Cade Schuckman started off the scoring putting the Ephs up 1-0. After battling up and down the field neither team seemed to be able to find an offensive rhythm. This led to the first quarter remaining relatively quiet, with
Ryan Johnson securing the second goal for Williams to tie the game 2-2 after one quarter.
Penalties would start to become a factor as the second quarter started to split wide open for Williams. Pearse Gavin,
Nick Bates, and
Will Doran all scored in the opening 8:00 minutes putting the Ephs up 5-2. Wesleyan, however, would fight back for the remainder of the quarter. By the 12:00 minute mark Wesleyan would find a surge of momentum that would see them leading by a score of 7-5. In typical Williams's fashion, there would be no quit, rather a dogged determination to stay in the game.
Will Doran and Pearse Gavin both recorded notched heir second goals of the afternoon putting the Ephs right back even with Wesleyan going into halftime, 7-7.
Wesleyan's offense kicked into gear in the third quarter and the Cardinals opened up a 12-8 lead. Ephgoalie
Matt Wetmore would continue to battle through and came up with some huge saves to keep the Ephs alive.
Pearse Glavin tallied another unassisted goal, his third of the afternoon. Wesleyan led at the end of three quarters 12-9.
The fourth quarter was another defensive struggle with each team scoring once to enable Wesleyan to claim a 13-10 win.
Eph head coach
George McCormack said post-game, "We played a solid 1st half on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately we were outplayed by Wesleyan in the 3rd quarter and that was the difference in the game. Our defensive unit played solid most of the day considering that Wesleyan came into the game averaging 24 goals a game, which is tops in the nation. Going forward we need to play four solid quarters of lacrosse on both sides of the ball to give ourselves a chance."
The Ephs will look to get back on the winning track next Wednesday when they hit the road to face RPI.
