While most students were away enjoying their break, the Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team was getting their highly anticipated 2011 campaign underway.  The Cardinals showed that their focus did not disappear with their vacationing fellow students.  In fact, the Cards have gone undefeated since the start of their season, vaulting to number 13 in the USILA Division III poll while winning six straight games by an average margin of 5.5 goals.

The season began with a game at Salve Regina University, and it took the Cardinals three periods to get their act together.  After being down 2-1 in the first period, Wes went on a quick 5-0 run.  Although they let Salve back in the contest by allowing three quick goals in the third quarter, they erased the lapse by going on a 7-0 run sparked by Max Landow’s ’12 quick hat trick.  Teddy Citrin ’12 had four goals in the 13-8 victory, and transfer Casey Lasda started his Wesleyan career off with a bang, scoring a hat trick of his own.

In their next game, at SUNY Maritime, the Cardinals started slowly yet again, holding only a 3-1 lead with 21 minutes left in the contest.  After that, however, the Cards brought the hammer down, scoring six goals, including three by John Froats ’12, on the way to a 9-2 win.

The first NESCAC foe for Wesleyan this year was Bowdoin, who was ranked 18th at the time and took a quick 3-0 lead over the Cards in Maine.  Wes refused to back down, managing to tie the score at four by halftime.  After scoring two goals in the third quarter, the Cardinals managed to hold off the Bowdoin attack in the fourth, prevailing 7-6.

SUNY Farmingdale provided the fourth straight win for Wesleyan, who allowed the host five goals in the first half but scored nine in the second to win 15-9.

Not only have the Cardinals won big against lesser squads, but they have also beaten supposedly superior teams in close games.  Number five Middlebury visited Middletown on Saturday, looking to increase its 24-17-1 lead in the all-time series with the Cardinals, but Wes prevailed in an overtime thriller, 9-8.

Wesleyan trailed only once in the contest after Middlebury scored seven minutes into the first period.  Citrin evened the score just 35 seconds later, and the Cards had leads of 5-2 and 6-3 before halftime.  In the fourth, the Panthers finally completed their comeback attempt, tying the score at eight apiece with 10 minutes left.  The longest scoring draught of the game followed, with neither team scoring before the end of the fourth quarter.

But then the Cardinals scored one of the quickest goals of the season.  Landow finished off another hat trick just 29 seconds into sudden-death overtime to provide the winning goal against the visiting Panthers.  However, the victory was a team effort, with outstanding defense by goalie Grant Covington ’12, who racked up 15 saves in the contest, and Mike Robinson ’13, who caused a game-high four turnovers.  Joe Del Visco ’12 won 13 out of 19 faceoffs as the Cardinals got revenge for Middlebury’s 2010 regular-season 12-5 victory, winning their sixth game in the last 11 against the Panthers.

With the victory over number five Middlebury, Wesleyan cracked the top 20 of the USILA Division III poll, coming in at number 13.  They took their new laurels to the Merchant Marine Academy on Tuesday, starting slow yet again as they creeped out to a 3-3 tie after the first period.  However, they turned it on after that, scoring four goals in the first six minutes of the second, outscoring the Mariners 8-0 in the third, and taking a 20-4 lead in the fourth before winning 21-8.  It appears the future is bright for the Cardinals, with 11 of their 21 goals in the game coming from freshmen, including four by Aiden Daniell ’14.

The Cards will look to improve upon their 6-0 record on Saturday, March 26, as they travel to Bates to begin the meat of their conference season.