Men’s Lacrosse Notches Record-Breaking 26-12 Win Over Bates

This past Saturday, the Amherst men’s lacrosse team routed NESCAC rival Bates in a home matchup on Pratt Field that doubled as the team’s senior day.

The Mammoths will graduate 12 seniors following the 2018 season: midfielder and ice hockey dual-athlete David White, face-off expert Drew Kelleher, midfielder Jack Cahill, captain and midfielder Ian Kadish, captain and midfielder Max Keeley, long-stick midfielder Greg Roder, defender Drew Altizer, long-stick midfielder Jordan Sanford, midfielder Connor Sheehan, midfielder Brett Inglesby, attacker Zach Schwartz and defender Zack Anderson.

Over four years, the class has qualified for three NESCAC tournaments, including a trip to the championship game in 2015, and advanced to three straight NCAA tournament quarterfinals. Saturday’s win marked the seniors’ 56th career victory, and the 26-point outburst set a new program single-game scoring record.

Junior Evan Wolf also celebrated a milestone — his 100th career goal. He had seven points in the contest, logging five goals and two assists to help lead the scoring surge against the Bobcats. Jon Coffey ’20 continued his tremendous play this season, putting a monstrous seven goals on the board to lead all scorers, while fellow sophomore Colin Minicus tallied six assists for the Mammoths. The diverse list of goal-scorers included seniors Kelleher and Sanford, juniors Jack Norton, Trenton Shore and Jack Wolff, sophomores Matt Solberg, Logan Lair, Dylan Finazzo and Jimmy McAfee and first-year Dylan Peabody.

After a relatively evenly-matched first half, the Mammoths exploded to tally seven goals in both the third and fourth quarters to make a 12-9 contest the record-breaking final score of 26-12. Sophomore goalie Chad Simons was instrumental in to widening the margin, knocking away 12 shots and going 18-for-18 on defensive clears to provide an easy transition into Amherst’s attack.

With the win, Amherst improved to 12-2 on the season and 8-1 in league play and kept alive hopes for a top seed in the NESCAC tournament. The Bobcats fell to 3-6 in NESCAC play.

The Mammoths will return to action on Wednesday, when they host Trinity under the lights in the final home matchup of the regular season at 6 p.m., before the first round of the NESCAC tournament this Saturday.