By James Bedrock
Sports Editor
The Washington College men’s lacrosse team is looking to break its five-game losing streak this weekend when it hosts Franklin and Marshall in the last conference game in the season.
Historically, the Shoremen have handled the Diplomats with seven wins in their last eight meetings, but this year, it could be a different story.
Last week, the Shoremen lost another close match against the number five team in the nation, the Dickinson Red Devils. Dickinson, which has one loss in the season, got off to an early 2-0 lead and there was virtually no turning back. The Shoremen were able to come within one in the fourth quarter with the score at 10-9 Dickinson, but the Red Devils were able to net two back-to-back, leading to an eventual final of 12-10.
Junior Doug Herdegen pushed his team high goal count to 20, putting in two goals against Dickinson. Sophomore Tom Rixey was able to hit two and get an assist. Junior Josh Perlow has been on fire recently, scoring nine goals in his past four games. After missing the first three games of the season, Perlow is on the heels of Herdegen for the team lead in scoring and points.
Defensively, the Shoremen have some work to do if they want to decrease their goals against average of 10.16. Freshman Matt Miller has faced the majority of shots for the Shoremen in net and is facing a large amount of shots per game. The Shoremen are being outshot this season, 421 to 374. It has been a rebuilding year for the Shoremen on defense, with a lot of youth talent seeing a lot of time. The experience gained by these players this season will translate well into next year.
The number one ranked Sea Gulls of Salisbury have only one loss on the season and this year’s game will be one of the toughest for the Shoremen in recent years. It is already known that the Shoremen will come out for this one harder than ever before.