Box Score
OWINGS MILLS, MD - Led by six caused turnovers and eight ground balls from Stevenson men's lacrosse junior Kyle Holechek (Reisterstown, Md), the 10th-ranked Mustangs held the nation's ninth-ranked scoring offense to just five goals as they posted a 9-5 victory over No. 2 Tufts Wednesday night at Mustang Stadium.
The Mustangs (6-2), who entered the week ranked ninth in scoring defense, held the Jumbos to its lowest goal total since a 6-5 win versus Union (NY) on May 14, 2011 in the second round of the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship. Tufts had scored 45 goals in its first three games.
Stevenson is now 87-2 all time when allowing six goals or less and has won 54 out of the last 55.
Senior Ian Bolland (Mountain Lakes, NJ) totaled 11 saves, one shy of his season-high set against No. 3 SUNY Cortland on Saturday. He entered the game ranked 18th in Division III in goals against average and now has at least 10 saves in eight out of his last 10 games.
Tufts (3-1), who won last year's meeting versus Stevenson 14-13 on Mar. 23, 2011 at Towson's Unitas Stadium and advanced to the national championship game, was one of 18 remaining unbeaten teams in Division III this season.
The Mustangs never trailed in Wednesday's game, taking a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the first quarter when freshman Pat Candon (Long Beach, NY) scored the first of his three goals at 10:23 to give Stevenson a 1-0 lead.
The Jumbos' Kevin McCormick (Laytonsville, MD) scored 35 seconds later to tie the game at 1-1 before the Mustangs scored four of the next five to take a 5-2 advantage with 6:17 remaining in the second quarter.
Freshman Billy Burgoyne (Boonton Township, NY) scored his seventh goal of the year a man-up with 13:25 to play in the quarter, snapping an 0 for 15 drought with a man advantage, a span of four games.
Tufts would answer with back-to-back goals from Beau Wood (Sherwood Forest, MD) and Ben Saperstein (Hewlett, NY) to pull within one, but Stevenson senior Brian Badolato (Boonton Township, NJ) scored his third goal of the season with just one second remaining to steal the momentum and give the Mustangs a two-goal lead at the half, 6-4.
The two teams exchanged two goals within 36 seconds in the second quarter before Candon netted the game's final two tallies to provide the final four-goal margin of victory for Stevenson. It was the first career hat trick for Candon.
Sophomore Chris Dashiell (Salisbury, MD) finished with three assists for his third multi-point game of the season.
Wood led the Jumbos with two goals while sophomore goalie Patton Watkins (Chatanooga, TN) finished with 10 saves.
Tufts returns home and will host Colby in a NESCAC game on Friday at 4 pm. Stevenson begins a three-game road trip on Saturday when it travels to Mary Washington. Game time is at 1:00 pm.
Game boxscore
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Game recap courtesy of Stevenson University
