WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College Ephs (2-1) hosted the Bates College Bobcats (4-0) this afternoon looking to maintain their lossless season. It was a wildly entertaining game with both sides carrying, leading, and battling momentum. The first half was full of back-and-forth scoring, while the second half was dominated by large scoring runs and a final late back-and-forth push. Despite the high levels of entertainment, Williams did end up falling in overtime to Bates by a score of 11-10.
The first quarter started off with the Ephs leading by 2.
Harrison Cross picked up the first goal with an assist from
Ryan Johnson. The second came off the stick of
Jesse Shapiro. The next ten minutes were a battle for the Ephs.
AJ Zuleta was having a day in the defensive zone, the sophomore was locking down the Bates forwards and giving the home crowd something to cheer for. Despite peppering the Bates goaltender with shots from
Ryan Johnson,
Jesse Shapiro, and
Wyatt Cotton, the Ephs were tied at 2 at the end of the first quarter.
Shots on net were coming from all directions for the Ephs to start the second quarter. After five minutes of this and even more sustained offensive pressure,
Gavin Timoney gave the Ephs the lead back with a rip from off the slot. Despite dropping back to an even score of 3,
Ian Kim got the ball back in the hands of Williams and on the attack. This led to a Bates penalty and Ryan Nagel, tossing up a great apple, to
Will Doran for the 4-3 lead.
Jesse Shapiro found the next Eph goal which had Williams walking out of the first half leading by a score of 5-3.
Gavin Timoney got the third quarter started with back-to-back goals. The sophomore putting the Ephs up 7-3 before assisting on
Seamus Regan's bingo, giving the Ephs a solid 8-3 lead over Bates. Throughout the remainder of the quarter, Bates started to push back against the pressure Williams had been sustaining.
Matt Wetmore was solid in between the pipes today, and
Wyatt Cotton was playing some seriously gritty defense for the Ephs as well. With time running down, Williams still held a good two goal lead at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was a complete barn burner. There were fans from both schools in attendance today, and the players gave them all something to cheer for. Bates started off the scoring, then
Jesse Shapiro answered. Bates scored again, then
Brody Page responded for the Ephs with his first goal of the season off a crazy bounce. Bates scored again, but this time they managed to capitalize on a broken play and scored again to tie this game 10-10. For the remaining four minutes it was a dog fight. Both sides were battling up and down the field trying to find that last goal needed to secure the win. Regulation would not be enough, however, as overtime was needed to determine the victor today. After three minutes had elapsed, Bates would score on the man advantage and continue their lossless season.
Eph head coach
George McCormack had this to say after the game, "Some of our turnovers in transition came back to haunt us, so just need to clean up a few things, but it was a great game…Bates has a strong program, and we expected that. We're looking forward to learning and growing from this, and taking these lessons going forward against Wesleyan next weekend."
