Entering into eight straight NESCAC games that will finish out their regular season, the fourth-ranked men’s lacrosse team started things off right, beating the Bowdoin Polar Bears, 7-3, at home on Saturday. The Cards also slipped past a deceptively skilled Connecticut College team Wednesday night in an 8-7 double overtime decision. The two wins helped the team to get back on track in the highly competitive NESCAC. The Cards now sit comfortably at 2-1 in the conference.

“It was really important after the Tufts [loss] to get our first NESCAC win,” said defenseman Spike Malangone ’09. “To go into Bowdoin and get the ball rolling was a big step.”

Coming into the game ranked seventh nationally, the Cardinal defense stifled a potent Bowdoin attack, limiting the Polar Bears to only three goals on twenty-five shots. During several tight periods during the game, the Cardinal defenders completely crippled the Bowdoin offense. Before the end of the first half, a Bowdoin man-up opportunity was killed by the Cards and for the final 21 minutes of play, the defense held Bowdoin scoreless.

“We [the defense] came out with a lot of energy and we are really coming together as a unit,” Malangone said. “And C-tone [goalie Charlie Congleton ’07] made some huge saves.”

On Saturday, Congleton continued to build on another stellar season in goal, recording 11 saves and tossing precision passes on his clears to help the team to victory.

Offensively, scoring came fast and in bunches for the Cards. Dan Latzman ’09, Mike Hines ’07, and Jason Ben-Eliyahu ’09 all found the back of the net early in the first quarter. Bowdoin answered back, and the first period ended with a 3-1 Wesleyan advantage. Late in the second quarter after Matt Chadwick scored for Bowdoin, “Hollywood” John Killeen ’10 increased the Wesleyan lead with a goal on a slick cut. After the man-down stand from the defense, the half ended with Wesleyan ahead 5-3. The Cards were confident in the locker room, but a raucous crowd in Brunswick made the atmosphere tense as the second half began.

“Bowdoin is a tough place to play, I mean Coach Raba has only won twice there in his career,” said tri-captain Mike Hines ’07. “It is a somewhat hostile environment with fans that heckle, but they are terrible at it.”

Hines noted, however, that as the Bowdoin fans continued to taunt, the team’s motivation to dominate increased.

“Their coach was wearing a sweet blaze-orange hunting hat,” Hines said, ever fashion-savvy. “That, along with the constant taunting, seemed to make everyone a little bit angry.”

Russ Follansbee ’09 started off the scoring for Wesleyan in the third quarter. After a goal from Bowdoin’s Matt Legg, Ben-Eliyahu and Hines each scored their second goal of the afternoon and the team left Maine having won its last three against Bowdoin.

The team then prepared hard for a clash with Connecticut College this week. The Camels are a bit of a paradox in the NESCAC. They haven’t won a single game, and currently sit at 0-7 on the season, yet have played teams close all season long. At Middlebury, they lost by one goal and on Wednesday afternoon, in a downpour, they took the Cards to double overtime.

“Last night was a tough one,” Hines said, who ripped into his team at halftime with a fiery speech about maintaining their level play and not playing down to a lesser opponent. “Conn is definitely the best winless team in the country. They’ve lost about four or five games by one goal.”

Freezing rain and a slippery turf field made for sloppy lacrosse.

“The conditions were really terrible at Conn,” Hines said. “It was so cold that even Alex Kaufman’s [’08] flow couldn’t even keep him warm.”

Despite the Camels reputation for being tough competition, Wesleyan jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first quarter, with Grayson Connors ’08 netting two and Chris Jasinski ’08 scoring the third. Wesleyan then went silent on the offense end for almost an entire quarter, as Conn amassed four goals during this period until defenseman Matt Burke ’07 carried the ball over the midline and found a streaking Ben-Eliyahu for a goal to end the scoring draught for the Cards. At the half, however, the score was 6-4 in favor of Connecticut College.

“People were going wild at halftime,” Latzman said. “Mike ‘crazy animal’ Polhemus [’09] was seriously about to explode into little pieces. His glowing red face expressed his anger that we weren’t playing up to our potential.”

The freezing rain that did not let up the entire game combined with the deficit at halftime, making emotions run high.

“Halftime was miserable because of the cold,” Latzman said. “But Jeff Mclaren [’06] warmed me up by covering my face with his gooey, warm spit during his motivational halftime oration.”

The third quarter saw a barrage of Cardinal goals as Hines, Ben-Eliyahu, and Latzman all put unassisted goals by goalie Mark Moran. Despite killing two man-down penalties early on in the fourth quarter, Conn Freshman Steve Dachille snuck a late goal past Congleton to take the game into overtime, tied 7-7.

In the first overtime, Wesleyan wasted two opportunities to end the game. Early on, after Bobby Goulding ’08, who was 13-20 for the game at the face-off, won a clean draw and pushed the ball to the offensive side. He passed to Connors, who was all alone on the doorstep, but dropped the ball.

After a scoreless first overtime, the second extra session saw another blown opportunity that almost cost Wesleyan the game. A perfect fast break was ended when a shot from Ben-Eliyahu was nabbed by Moran.

“Benny [Ben-Eliyahu] blew a chance to win the game with a couple of seconds left,” Hines said. “But if you follow the team you have to be used to Benny blowing things.”

However, Ben-Eliyahu, the team’s leading scorer and stellar attackman, helped set up the offense for the winning goal, which came from Wesleyan’s newest star. Freshman midfielder Lonny “The Bolt” Blumenthal cut down from the top of the box, getting a feed from Connors, and one-timed a goal past Moran for the win. The Cards celebrated their second consecutive NESCAC victory in the pouring rain.

Wesleyan is now in a position to take a significant lead in the conference. Each team except Tufts has at least one loss and several teams, including perennial powerhouse Middlebury, have lost to lower-ranked opponents. With Williams College visiting the turf field this Saturday, the Cards hope to bring home another victory and continue their march to the NESCAC tournament.