The men’s lacrosse team faced Yale Saturday with the chance to take a pivotal win over the No. 15 Bulldogs (8-3, 5-0 Ivy) and remain in the top half of the conference standings. But despite a 7-7 score at halftime, Yale pulled ahead of the Bears (5-5, 2-2 Ivy) in the second half, defeating Brown 18-12.
“We had great energy coming into the game again this past weekend,” said midfielder Stephen Hudak ’18. “All of the Ivy games bring out the best in our players.”
Yale scored first, with Ben Reeves beating first-year goalie Phil Goss ’20 a minute and a half into the game. Reeves caused problems for Bruno through the course of the game, finishing with five goals and five assists. Brown quickly responded, with returning All-American and team co-captain Dylan Molloy ’17 feeding attackman Jackson Newsome ’19 for the score under a minute later.
With Yale leading 3-1, Hudak and co-captain defenseman Alec Tulett ’17 each added goals to even the score again
Yale took the lead for the third time with another two-goal run, bringing the score to 5-3. But like clockwork, the Bears’ offense struck twice with two goals in the final 90 seconds of the quarter by Michael Panepinto ’19 and long stick midfielder Larken Kemp ’17 to tie the game at five.
With four seconds left, Matt Gaudet converted after a quick face-off win for Yale, giving the Bulldogs a 6-5 lead as the first quarter closed. Yale kept its momentum, with another goal at 12:33 in the second quarter to take another two-goal lead.
Molloy contributed a pair of goals twenty seconds apart to tie up the game for a fourth time. The teams exchanged blows for the remainder of the quarter, but Goss made two saves and Phil Huffard notched one to keep the score even at seven going into halftime.
“We played a good first half,” Hudak said. “We battled at the face off X, we had good shots, and the defense had a great second quarter.”
Yale went on another offensive surge to begin the third quarter, taking a 10-7 lead that Brown could not erase.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, Molloy scored on a man up opportunity to bring the score to 15-11. But the Bears could not crawl back any further. Instead, the Bulldogs went on a 4-0 run to close out the remainder of the fourth quarter and take the 18-12 win.
“We made mistakes that they capitalized on,” Hudak said. “We still have not put together a complete 60-minute game this season and that is what we need to work on.”
Goss made 15 saves in the loss, one week after a career-high 19 saves against Penn. Yale took 54 shots to Brown’s 46 and held the advantage in ground balls, turnovers forced and face-offs .
The Bears currently sit in a tie with Cornell for the fourth spot in the Ivy League table and will continue their season Tuesday at Providence College. Saturday, Brown will host the Big Red (4-7, 2-2) for its final home game of the season. Brown will need to maintain its top-four position in the league in order to qualify for the Ivy League tournament and retain the chance to play in the NCAA Championship.
“We will focus on each day and not look ahead,” Hudak said. “Right now we’re focused on getting better tomorrow at Monday practice.”
