Box Score MEDFORD - Sophomore Charlie Fay scored five goals as visiting Bates College upset #1 in the nation and defending NCAA champion Tufts, 12-8, in NESCAC men's lacrosse action Tuesday night at Bello Field.
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| Junior Peter Gill scored twice with an assist for Tufts |
The Bobcats scored six straight goals turning a 3-2 first quarter deficit into an 8-3 lead in the middle of the third quarter. Tufts pushed back with three in a row, but the Bobcats were able to finish the job out-scoring the Jumbos 4-2 in the fourth.
Bates was able to hold the high-powered Tufts attack to less than 10 goals for the first time in 25 games. In the process, the Bobcats stopped a 24-game Jumbo winning streak overall and a 28-game home winning streak. The loss is the first for Tufts against a conference opponent in 15 games.
Junior Jack Allard scored four goals with an assist and senior Jack Strain added two goals and one assist for Bates, which won its third in a row and fourth in its last five games. Junior Joe Faria made 11 saves in the Bobcat net. Bates is now 7-4 overall and 4-4 in the league.
Tufts, which dropped to 10-1 and 6-1 NESCAC, was led by two goals each from junior Peter Gill and sophomore Austin Carbone.
The game featured the return of Jumbo senior co-captain Cole Bailey after missing eight contests with an injury. He assisted the game's first goal by Gill 38 seconds into the action. Fay netted his first two to put Bates up 2-1, but Carbone and junior Garrett Clarke gave the Jumbos a 3-2 edge at the end of one.
Bates started its six-goal run at 13:07 of the second quarter when Fay scored again to knot the score at 3-3. The Bobcats would blank Tufts 3-0 in the second and then score the first three goals of the second half to lead 8-3 on Strain's strike with 6:56 on the third-quarter clock. Fay scored three times while Allard and sophomore Kyle Weber both had a goal and an assist during Bates' six-goal span.
The Bobcats held the Jumbos scoreless for a 28:06 stretch from late in the first until late in the third. However, Tufts came back to close the margin to 8-6 by the end of the third quarter as both Carbone and junior Connor Bilby scored and assisted goals.
After the teams traded goals making it 9-7 Bates, the Bobcats got the next two by Allard and Strain to go up 11-7 with 8:29 remaining in the fourth. The visitors were then able to keep the margin at four until junior John Uppgren scored for Tufts with 3:59 left. However, when Bates junior defenseman Stefano Stadlinger hit Allard in stride with a pass that traveled more than half the field and Allard scored at 2:42 for a 12-8 lead the visitors had the victory sealed up.
Junior defenseman Ken O'Friel caused two turnovers and picked up three groundballs for Bates. The Bobcats finished with small advantages in shots (37-36) and groundballs (32-28). They held the Jumbos scoreless on three man-up advantages in the first half.
Junior Alex Salazar made 12 saves and sophomore Tyler Carbone caused two turnovers for Tufts defensively.
Bates will host Middlebury in NESCAC action on Saturday at 1 pm. The Jumbos play their final regular-season home game of 2015 that day versus Hamilton at 1 pm.
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