No. 1 Men's Lacrosse Completes Undefeated Regular Season Defeating No. 9 Bowdoin, 19-15

BRUNSWICK, ME (April 26, 2023) -- The No. 1 Tufts University men's lacrosse team completed its undefeated regular season thanks to eight second quarter goals to prevail on the road at No. 9 Bowdoin Wednesday Night, 19-15, in action from Whittier Field in Brunswick, ME.

Tufts started the first quarter scoring as Charlie Tagliaferri got on the board just 46 seconds into the ball game following a Mason Kohn faceoff win. After back and forth play between the teams, Will Byrne tied the game at 1. Following a Polar Bear turnover, Jack Boyden regained Tufts' 2-1 lead, but Matt Ward tied it back up for Bowdoin off the feed from Byrne. Boyden connected with Max Ettinghausen to regain the Jumbos lead and then Boyden scored his second to make it 4-2 Tufts.

Bowdoin didn't go away as they got a goal right back. The next goal for Tufts came from Sam Sturim as he took the feed from Boyden and slotted it home to get Tufts' lead back up to two with 3:49 remaining. The teams would trade opportunities and Conner Garzone made a save at the buzzer to deny Bowdoin keeping the score 5-3 Tufts going to the second.

The offense came to life in the second quarter for the Jumbos as Jack Regnery got it all started as he gave Tufts the 6-3 lead. Following a Bowdoin goal, Kurt Bruun got Tufts its three-goal lead back, but Bowdoin again cut it two almost immediately after the ensuing faceoff. Tagliaferri scored his second of the game as Joe Murtha found him. Sturim forced the Polar Bears to take a timeout as it was Ethan O'Neill who fed him, and he made it 9-5 Tufts.

Tommy Swank scored the next two goals as the first came after a Garzone save and Bruun found him. The next one to give Tufts a six-goal lead at 11-5 following a Polar Bear turnover. Ward scored his second to cut the Jumbo lead to five, but Tagliaferri got his first half hat-trick as he gave the Jumbos the 12-6 lead. Kohn then made it 13-6 as he won the faceoff and was able to take it right to the net. Bowdoin scored with 21 seconds left as the halftime score was 13-7 Tufts.

Bowdoin came out of halftime and scored two goals 53 seconds apart with the latter scored by Ward. Louis Timmins took the feed from Bruun and buried a goal to give the Jumbos a 14-9 lead. Byrne cut the Jumbos lead to four as Boyden responded with another goal to get the Tufts lead back to five.
The back-and-forth scoring continued in the third quarter as Liam Tasker got Bowdoin back to within four. The Jumbos got a man-up goal from Ettinghausen as Boyden picked up another assist. Two more Polar Bears goals cut the Jumbo to lead to 16-13 going to the fourth quarter.

Garzone came up huge to start the fourth quarter as he made a clutch save with the Polar Bears on the man-up and was rewarded on the other end as Tagliaferri scored his fourth goal. The Jumbo lead once again got to five as Regnery scored his second on the night. Bowdoin scored consecutive goals as they cut the Tufts lead again down to three with a little over seven minutes remaining. Tagliaferri finished the scoring for the night as he got his fifth goal as they Jumbos now led 19-15. The Jumbos defense held strong the rest of the way as they forced two turnovers along with Garzone making two saves to preserve the 19-15 Tufts victory.

Boyden racked up six points with three goals and three assists, with Tagliaferri scoring five goals. Swank and Rengery each had three points with two goals and an assist apiece.  

Ettinghausen and Sturim both scored twice as Bruun had a goal and an assist for two points. O'Neill added two assists with Timmins and Kohn scoring a goal along with Murtha adding an assist.

Joey Waldbaum caused two turnovers along with scooping up two ground balls. Kohn scooped up 12 ground ball and went 18-28 from the faceoff "X." Garzone made 18 saves in net.

For Bowdoin, Byrne had six points as he scored three goals and had three assists. Ward scored three goals with an assist, with Pat Fitzgerald having three points, one goal and two assists. Peyton Hobbs made 14 saves for the Polar Bears in net.

Tufts will now move onto the NESCAC Tournament as they are the No. 1 seed and will face No. 8 seed Connecticut College on Saturday April 29 at 3:00 p.m.