Williamstown, MA - With being back at Farley Lamb Field, the Williams College Ephs (4-7,2-5) were looking to put on a strong showing as they hosted the #6 Bowdoin College Polar Bears (10-1,6-1). It is senior weekend here in Williamstown, and the whole team was standing behind their seniors as they started this big game. It was a competitive first half with both sides having moments where they controlled the momentum. It was a challenging third and fourth quarter, however, as Bowdoin had a strong showing and took this game 19-8.
The first quarter saw a difficult start for Williams, who were down 2-0 in the opening minutes. Their determination shined through as they started building momentum off a couple great ground plays from Eddie Loyd and Brody Page. This led to Williams' first goal, buried by Jesse Shapiro off a face off win from Ian Kim. Senior goaltender Matt Wetmore then came up with some huge saves in the ensuing minutes, giving the Ephs a chance in the offensive zone. Will Doran and Ryan Johnson connected for the second Williams goal to tie the score. The next six minutes was played all over the field. The quarter ended with the Ephs applying pressure from a lot of different angles, Nolan Cooleen and Aidan Housenbold getting shots on the Bowdoin cage, but Bowdoin led 3-2.
The second quarter saw the Ephs starting at a one goal disadvantage, but it only took 30 seconds for Will Doran to step in and rip one past the Bowdoin goaltender and tie the game at 3-3. Jesse Shapiro was the next to tie the game again, Shapiro scoring off a great pass from Ryan Nagel. The Williams defense then needed to dig in for the ensuing minutes. Brendan Cooleen coming up with some great ground balls amidst battles with the Bowdoin players. Williams would drop a few goals, but Ryan Nagel managed to find a final goal to end the quarter and make the score 7-5 Bowdoin.
It was a very challenging second half that the Ephs found themselves battling through. Jack Sartorius found himself the sole goal scorer for Williams in the third quarter, with Harrison Cross scoring the only two goals in the fourth quarter. This was ultimately not enough to compete with Bowdoin's 12 goals. The Polar Bears just managed to capitalize on their chances a bit more than the Ephs today. The final score 19-8 Bowdoin.
Eph head coach George McCormack had this to say after the game, "Obviously really proud of my seniors, they played really well today. I thought we all did some really good things, but Bowdoin started the flex their muscles in the second half. Our effort was there today. Our defensive execution was a bit off in the second half, but we're looking forward to playing MIT on Tuesday."
