By Aaron Rodenhausen
Elm Staff Writer
Last week, Washington College’s men’s lacrosse team gave their all in the first two games of the season, securing an early pair of wins.
That strong start gave the team hope for a perfect season, a goal that turned out to be unrealistic. Nonetheless, the Shoremen learned a lot from this week and gave no less admirable of a performance.
The first game of the week was on Feb. 26 against the Generals of Washington and Lee University, who are ranked fourth in the nation.
The Shoremen dominated the first quarter with three goals to the Generals’ zero, two of which were scored by junior attacker Cam Carrigan.
However, the balance tipped as the teams went into the second quarter. In the first eight minutes, Washington and Lee surged ahead and seized a 4-3 lead.
With two minutes remaining, the Shoremen were only able to score one more goal — from Carrigan, assisted by senior attacker Grant Matthews — tying things up just before the break.
The Generals wasted no time in the second half, securing their lead once more in the third quarter’s opening seconds. The WC team responded by taking two of the next three goals for themselves, but that only halved the gap, with a 8-7 score.
The visiting Generals pulled ahead once again in the fourth quarter, scoring four of the first five goals and leaving the Shoremen down 12-8.
The final two goals of the game went to the home team, the last of these coming from senior midfielder Ben Dickinson, assisted by fellow senior midfielder Parker Barta in the closing seconds of the night.
Yet again, the Shoremen just barely failed to catch up to their competition; the final score was 12-10, making for WC’s first loss of the season. The Shoremen fell to 2-1 as Washington and Lee climbed to 2-0.
“[I] think we played a tough opponent, but played well ourselves,” Matthews said. “[We] just have to finish more opportunities [and] value the ball a little bit more…We’re still getting in the swing of things, but all in all…it has been a successful start to the season and getting ready for conference play.”
The Shoremen’s second and final home game of the week was on March 1, this time against the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College.
The home team opened up scoring a mere 55 seconds into the first quarter with a goal by senior midfielder Cory Morgan. Another goal from Carrigan solidified a 2-0 lead for WC, which grew to 4-1 by the end of the quarter.
In the second quarter, Morgan was once more the first to score, but the Yellow Jackets swiftly answered with three goals of their own. Only seven seconds later, senior defender Aidan Wilson scored and solidified the Shoremen’s lead again.
WC scored twice during the third quarter, first from Morgan and then from freshman attacker Nate Winters, assisted by Matthews. By the end of the quarter, the score was tied 10-10.
Winters broke the tie early in the fourth quarter after picking up a ground ball. The Shoremen then went on a 5-1 run to finish out the game, including two goals by Carrigan and one apiece by sophomore attacker Nicky Bond, sophomore midfielder Jack Dupuis, and sophomore midfielder Reeve Hargrave.
The final score of the game was 16-11, with the Shoremen moving up to 3-1 in the season and the Yellow Jackets falling to 4-2.
“It feels great to win this game against a good team. After losing on Wednesday, we definitely were not happy with the result because our goal is to win every game, but we set our eyes on today’s game and bounced back,” Winters said.
Although the week started on a negative note for the Shoremen, it taught them an important lesson on overcoming adversity.
“After Wednesday we learned that we just had to play our game and out hustle our opponent, which we did today to earn us a victory,” Winters said. “Overall, the team this year is very confident in our ability to play good lacrosse and to compete against some of the best teams in the country.”
The Shoremen have a pair of home games scheduled over spring break, playing Skidmore College March 12, and Chatham University on March 15.
Photo by Darius Kesey.
Photo Caption: Washington College men’s lacrosse is off to a 3-1 start to the season with their home games.