Box Score MEDFORD - Down 9-6 heading into the fourth quarter, the Tufts men's lacrosse team scored seven unanswered goals to take the lead and then hold off the Cardinals for a 13-12 win in an exciting NESCAC game at Bello Field Saturday afternoon.
The Jumbos would score more goals in the first 10:27 of play in the fourth quarter than they had in the first three quarters combined. Senior Kyle Howard-Johnson got the run going with back-to-back goals at 13:33 and 11:21 making it 9-8. Ben Andreycak scored the equalizer at 10:06 from John Uppgren, and then Uppgren netted the go-ahead goal at 9:22. Jake Gillespie finished the stretch with consecutive goals and Tufts led 13-9 with 4:33 on the fourth-quarter clock.
However, Wesleyan capitalized on Tufts turnovers to pull back within one goal. Taylor Ghesquiere scored at 3:29, Christian Barker added another at 2:30, and Harry Stanton capped the three-goal run at 1:22 making the score 13-12.
The visiting Cardinals would take three illegal procedure penalties on face-offs in the fourth quarter, including one after they had closed to within one goal. After that, the Jumbos were able to possess the ball for the remainder of the game to earn the win.
Tufts senior Conor Helfrich dominated face-offs all game, winning 24 of 28 resulting in 11 groundballs. The Jumbos were led by four goals and an assist from Gillespie, while Andreycak scored a pair and assisted on two. Howard-Johnson scored three times.
Stanton led Wesleyan with a game-high five goals and Ghesquiere added four.
Both goalies played well as Jumbo senior Alex Salazar stopped 15 shots and Wesleyan's Ted Bergman made 17 saves, including eight in the third quarter.
Wesleyan did not trail in the game until the fourth quarter. The score was tied 2-2 after one when Ghesquiere scored the first two goals of the second quarter to put the visitors up 4-2. The teams traded the next six goals, with two of Wesleyan's coming from Stanton, and it was 7-5 Cardinals at intermission.
Twice in the third period the Cardinals would lead by three as Ghesquiere and Stanton had goals sandwiching a Garrett Clarke tally for Tufts. However, the Jumbos turned it on and avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time since 2013.
Connor Landsdale caused three turnovers for Tufts defensively while Blake Wood picked up three groundballs. The Jumbos finished with advantages of 58-44 in shots and 32-25 on groundballs.
Quinn Mendelson and Eric Meyreles both caused two turnovers and grabbed two groundballs for Wesleyan. The Cardinals scored on two of their five man-up chances while holding the Jumbos without a goal in five man-advantages.
Tufts closes the regular-season at home on Wednesday night against Bowdoin at 7 pm. Wesleyan is also home in their regular-season finale on Wednesday versus Connecticut College at 4:30 pm.
#
