The men’s lacrosse team followed up a tough loss at Tufts on March 28 with two big home NESCAC wins against Trinity and Colby. Against Tufts, Wes seemed to have the advantage, holding a 7-3 lead in the second quarter and a 9-5 lead early in the third. Forced to play the NESCAC’s most potent offensive club without ill defensive star Spike Malangone, however, the Cardinals were unable to hold off the Jumbos, as Tufts outscored the Cardinals 7-1 over the last 23 minutes for a 12-10 final.

  Against Trinity, however, the Cardinals quickly bounced back, scoring just 3:26 into the game on a shot fired from shoulder height by Dan Latzman ’09, and never trailed in defeating the Bantams 9-3 on Wednesday. Trinity closed within 3-2 late in the first half, but the Cards went on a 6-1 run the rest of the way to run its winning streak against its Nutmeg State rival to 12. Both Jason Ben-Eliyahu ’09 and Russ Follansbee ’09 completed hat tricks with goals in the second half, and Ben-Eliyahu added a pair of assists to move into eighth place on the all-time Wesleyan scoring list at 142 points.

The Wesleyan goalkeeping and defense was stellar as well. Starting keeper Mike Borrero ’09 made seven saves and let in only two goals, and backup Colin Campbell ’10 played the last seven minutes of the game with one save and one goal allowed. The Cardinals as a team out shot the Bantams 36-19, picked up 21 more ground balls than Trinity, and won 10 out of 15 faceoffs, nine by Matt Ward ’10. Wesleyan has not lost to Trinity since 2000 and sits at 36-18 overall against the Bantams.

Colby came to Middletown on Saturday and jumped out to a 2-0 lead early, as Wesleyan struggled to set up its offense. But the Cardinals soon came to their senses, scoring eight consecutive goals to take command of the game and cruising to an 11-3 victory. Follansbee scored three unassisted goals on runs from behind the net in a 9:40 period during the first and second quarters to give Wesleyan a lead it would not relinquish. The Cardinals’ 8-0 run lasted well into the third quarter, as the Colby offense was unable to crack Wesleyan’s zone defense for almost 35 minutes after its early outburst. Borrero finished the game with 10 saves on 13 shots on goal, giving him 17 saves for the week. After Colby broke its scoring drought with 4:05 left in the third, Wesleyan found the back of the net there more times, providing the final 11-3 tally.

Follansbee had another outstanding game, tallying three goals and three assists, as he moved into sole possession of fifth place on the career scoring list with 172 points. With 43 points, he is the Cardinals’ leading scorer in 2009. Like Trinity, Wesleyan has dominated Colby recently, winning seven straight and nine of 11 overall.

The Cardinals will take on Western Connecticut on Tuesday in a home non-conference affair before traveling to Amherst on Saturday to resume NESCAC play.