In the Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team’s final regular season game on Friday against visiting Connecticut College, it looked like the Cardinals would fold on two occasions.  The first quarter included three goals by the visiting Camels and none by Wesleyan, but the Cards stormed back in the second.  In what would be their last home game, quint-captains Conor Malangone ’11 and Graham Gnall ’11 led the second-quarter comeback with two goals each, as the Cardinals scored six of the period’s eight goals to take a 6-5 halftime lead.

The Camels came out of the locker room in the third period with a vengeance, scoring four unanswered goals as Wesleyan suffered through a scoreless quarter.  Despite Conn’s 9-6 lead going into the fourth, though, the Cardinals were unfazed, scoring four goals in the first four minutes of the final stanza to take a 10-9 lead.  These included the second and third goals of the game for leading scorer Teddy Citrin ’12, who upped his team-best goal tally to 26 on the season with the hat trick.  He also assisted on the other two goals, including one by Malangone that gave him his second hat trick of the year.

After a one-minute penalty was levied against Conn’s Nick Sizer for unnecessary roughness with just over a minute left, Max Landow ’12 added what would prove to be a crucial insurance goal on the power play, giving Wes an 11-9 lead.  The Camels made a valiant effort at a comeback, taking the ensuing faceoff the length of the field and scoring just 17 seconds later to reduce the deficit to 11-10.  They won the final faceoff as well, getting off two shots that missed wide in the final 20 seconds before Wesleyan’s Mike Robinson ’13 picked up the final ground ball to secure the victory.

The NESCAC victory was the fifth of the season for the Cardinals, and all of them have come by just one goal.  Wes’ 5-4 conference record put them at 5th place in the NESCAC standings, meaning they had to go on the road this past Sunday to face fourth-seeded Trinity.  The Bantams had previously defeated Wesleyan on April 6 in a 7-6 nail-biter, scoring the winning goal with just 30 seconds left.

Unfortunately, the first-round NESCAC game would not be as hotly contested.  Trinity had only lost three games all season, and came into the contest ranked 13th nationally.  They showed their firepower early, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before Gnall stopped the bleeding with a goal of his own midway through the first quarter.

The Bantams scored two more goals before halftime, but a goal by Malangone, as well as two sandwiched around the intermission by rookie sensation Aidan Daniell ’14, reduced Trinity’s lead to 6-4 as the third quarter got going.

However, that was as close as the Cardinals would come.  Despite Daniell completing his hat trick to open the fourth quarter scoring, his two second-half goals were the only ones the Cardinals could muster.  Meanwhile, Trinity scored twice in each of the third and fourth quarters, eventually icing a 10-5 victory in the last five minutes.

Overall, the season was a disappointing one for the Cardinals, who won their first six games before losing five of their last nine.  Despite losing 10 seniors, the core of John Froats ’12, Cam Davila ’12, Max Landow ’12, Joe del Visco ’12, Citrin, DJ Bernatavitz ’12, Matt Meade ’12, and goalie Grant Covington ’12 will return, hoping for a NESCAC championship to cap off an outstanding four-year run.