One of the most remarkable streaks in recent Wesleyan athletics history was in danger over the weekend. Amherst hadn’t beaten the men’s lacrosse Cardinals since 1999, but on Saturday, the Lord Jeffs leaped out to a 3-1 first-period lead. But the Cards kept their heads and continued their remarkable season with a thrilling 6-5 win that will prove important to Wesleyan’s NESCAC and Little Three title aspirations.

After Russ Follansbee ’09 opened the scoring for Wesleyan in the first period, Amherst went on a quick three-goal run to close out the opening quarter. But just as they have done all season, the Cardinals, ranked 14th nationally in Division III, stuck to their core strategy and adjusted to their opponent to recover from the deficit.

“We trailed early, but once the defense made a few adjustments we really were able to shut them down and take away what they were doing on offense,” said All-American defenseman Spike Malangone ’09. “After that we were able to chip away and get the win.”

After goals by Lonny Blumenthal ’10 and Follansbee evened the score in the second period, Wes went into halftime with the momentum in the game. In the third quarter, however, the teams exchanged goals, scoring back and forth and basically establishing that whoever scored last would win. Jon Killeen ’10 had two of the three Cardinal goals in the second half, including the one that mattered most, a dagger with 1:52 left in the third period that would provide the winning 6-5 margin. After that, the two defenses took over, and neither team scored over the game’s final 16:52.

The win was a hard-fought battle in which most of the statistics actually favored Amherst. The Jeffs largely controlled the flow of the game, although Cardinal faceoff specialist Matt Ward ’10 did win 11 out of his 15 tries. Amherst had 14 more shots than the Cardinals, and also held a 36-31 edge in ground balls. Seven of those ground balls were picked up by Malangone, and six gathered by freshman John Froats ’12, who also scored a goal for the Cards.

Goalkeeper Mike Borrero ’09 may have been the most important Cardinal on Saturday, however. He anchored the staunch Wesleyan defense, picking up five ground balls to go along with his 12 saves. The Lord Jeffs got a point-blank shot in the closing seconds just after a Cardinal penalty expired, but Borrero made a spectacular save to preserve the 6-5 win.

Malangone made sure to credit Borrero for his superb work in goal.

“Mikey won the game for us,” he said. “He made two point blank saves (one at the end of the first half and one with about five seconds left) that were amazing. [Amherst was] getting shots for the most part that we wanted to give up, [but] when they were able to get a good one, Mike was there.”

“It’s always easy to get up for Amherst, and the games are always intense,” added Malangone, about Wesleyan’s ten-year winning streak against its rival. “I think beating them is a combination of being prepared and guys stepping up.”

Wesleyan’s recent dominance over Amherst in the past ten years has resulted in a string of Little Three dominance. Six years out of the last ten have seen Wesleyan win an outright Little Three title in men’s lacrosse, and the other four times, Wes has shared in a three-way tie.

The Cardinals will look to continue this Little Three supremacy in their next contest, when they host Williams this Saturday, April 18.