On Saturday the lacrosse team traveled to Williams (3-8, 2-5 NESCAC) and put their four-game winning streak on the line. The Ephs proved a small bump in the road, and the Cards won their fifth straight and earned the Little Three title for a second straight year. The win improves the team’s record to 11-2, and their 5-2 mark in the NESCAC puts them in sole possession of third place.
“Classy win. You love to see that a group such as ourselves can win with class,” said Dave Fine ’04. “Great work Williams.”
Although the final score, 8-5, looks close, Williams did not generate much of a threat, scoring four goals in the fourth quarter when the game was already in the hands of the Cardinals. Goalie Matt Wheeler ’05 had another strong outing for the squad, as the team went into halftime without giving up a goal. Wheeler left the game in the fourth quarter with the score standing at 7-1, and finished with 11 saves on the 12 shots.
Despite the lock-down in goal by Wheeler and the generally stout defense, the Cardinals offense got off to a slow start. After a scoreless first quarter, Wes took control thanks to two unassisted goals by Chris Knacke ’05. Knacke has been an offensive threat all year, and is second on the team in goals (22), assists (17), and points (39). Knacke’s goals were the only scores of the first half, giving the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage at the intermission. The team needed some senior leadership to get it going strong in the second.
“Jeff Jorve’s new mantra ‘No Blame, Only Shame,’ which, on a side note was borrowed from the popular early 90’s band Bush, has paid great dividends late in the season for us,” said quad-captain Dan Ackil ’04. “Come game time, Jeff’s simple yet obscure saying is as useful, if not more useful than other team creedos such as ‘Well, Did ya Ice It’ or ‘Keep it Tight and Loose’ or even ”Save your Manjuice“. In fact, ‘No Blame, Only Shame’ is rivaled only by one other timeless ambiguity, and that is ‘Coach Connor, Hit the Cage!’”
A glimmer of hope appeared early in the second half for Williams when they cut the lead down to 2-1 on the only goal Wheeler let up. Then the Cards stopped teasing the Ephs and went on a scoring tear that blew the game wide open. Less than thirty seconds after the Williams goal, team scoring leader and quad-captain Ian Applegate ’04 got the momentum back with an extra-man goal assisted by Mike Hines ’07.
With a 3-1 lead, Mike Vitulano ’06 put a damper on the day for the Ephs. First he scored a man-advantage goal, assisted by Glenn Adams ’06. Less than two minutes later Vitulano made the score 5-1 with an unassisted goal. Shortly after that quad-captain Jeff Jorve ’04 found Chris Meade ’05 for yet another Cardinals score. Adams then scored a goal of his own with less than a minute left in the third to cap off a five-goal run for the Cards. The team seems to be making a habit of scoring goals shortly before time expires, and such a goal broke Williams’ back as the score stood at a humiliating 7-1.
After the fourth quarter went scoreless for a while, Wheeler went to the sideline along with some of the other regulars and it seemed like everyone got in on the beating of the Ephs. Williams did manage to salvage some pride in scoring four goals in the last seven minutes so the final score looked respectable, but the Card’s six-goal fourth quarter lead proved insurmountable. Applegate scored the Cardinals only goal of the fourth, his second of the game, which came unassisted amidst the Ephs’ fourth quarter scores.
The victory not only gives the team the Little Three title, but also puts the Cards in great playoff position. The team has already clinched a playoff spot, and needs to win one of their final two games to guarantee home-field advantage in the first round of the NESCACs. On Wednesday, the team plays host to the Jumbos from Tufts, currently tied with Middlebury atop the conference standings at 6-1 (10-2 overall). A win on Wednesday will pull the Cardinals into a tie with the Jumbos for second place. The team’s final regular season competition is at home this Saturday, when the team plays Colby (8-4, 3-4 NESCAC), and then the conference playoffs begin the next day.
“Tufts doesn’t know what they’re going to be up against on Wednesday,” Ackil said. “The Manjuice build-up is at an all time high for this team, and we’ve been icing a lot lately. Tufts is done for.”
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