AMHERST, Mass. - The seventh-seeded Bowdoin College men's lacrosse team used a 7-0 run in the second half to rally to a 14-9 victory over second-seeded Amherst in the NESCAC Quarterfinals on Sunday afternoon. The suddenly red-hot Polar Bears (8-6) have won a season-best five straight games while ninth-ranked Amherst falls to 13-2 and sees its 13-game winning streak come to an end.
Bowdoin senior midfielder Ben Chadwick led all scorers with eight points on two goals and six assists, while sophomore attackers Patrick Lawlor and Billy Bergner paced the Polar Bears with the duo each recording a hat-trick. Senior goalkeeper Jake McCampbell finished the day with six saves in net for Bowdoin, who outshot Amherst 43-28. Jeff Izzo and Evan Redwood tallied three goals and an assist apiece, while first-year Devin Acton added a pair of scores. Junior goalie Sam Jakimo turned away 12 shots on the day.
Amherst opened up the scoring less than two minutes into the first period when Acton fed an unmarked Redwood, who snapped a quick shot past McCampbell. A long-distance rip from junior Alex Fox soon doubled the Amherst lead as the Lord Jeffs appeared to be in control. Bergner responded by putting Bowdoin on the board at 2:02, before senior midfielder Owen Smith beat Jakimo with a hard shot just six seconds later.
Lawlor later gave the Polar Bears their first lead of the day 1:48 into the second quarter, but Amherst quickly answered with two goals of its own. After feeding Acton to tie the game at 3-3, Redwood curled a run from behind the net and snuck a shot inside the left post. After goals from Bergner and Ben Chadwick helped Bowdoin regain a 5-4 lead, Izzo knotted the score with a shot from a tight angle.
The Polar Bears then jumped ahead 7-5 with goals from Chadwick and junior midfielder Keegan Mehlhorn, but with 2.2 seconds left in the half, Redwood again went airborne and wrapped a shot inside the near post to send the Jeffs into halftime trailing 7-6.
Amherst quickly regained the lead early in the third quarter thanks to another goal from Izzo and a long-distance bomb from Acton, but momentum then swung in Bowdoin's favor and would remain so for the remainder of the game, with the Polar Bears scoring seven unanswered goals to take a 14-8 lead.
Down 8-7, junior attack Nathan Fritts jump-started the visitor's decisive run by taking advantage of a man-up opportunity, putting away the game-tying tally at 6:20. Less than two minutes later, an opportunistic Fritts again made the Lord Jeffs pay for a costly penalty, this time assisting on Bergner's go-ahead man-up score that staked Bowdoin to a 9-8 edge heading into the final period.
Lawlor kept things rolling just 34 seconds into the fourth with a score that made it 10-8 before later finding an open Fritts in front of the Amherst goal to extend the lead t three. Smith and senior long-stick James Herter then buried consecutive scores just 52 seconds apart, before Lawlor capped off the rally with a tally at 5:15 making it 14-8. Izzo's third of the day gave the Jeffs a glimmer of hope, trimming the deficit to five, but Bowdoin would lock things out from there, earning a 14-9 upset win.
Bowdoin will face top-seeded Tufts in the semifinals next Saturday in Medford. The Polar Bears are one of just two teams to defeat the defending NESCAC and NCAA Champions this season, as they bounced the Jumbos at home last Friday, 15-9. Game times and ticket information will be announced next week.
