No. 19 Men’s Lacrosse Rallies Late to Defeat Conn. College, 14-11

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Trailing by one with 10:07 remaining in regulation, the No. 19 Wesleyan University men’s lacrosse team scored four straight goals en route to a 14-11 win over Connecticut College Wednesday night in the team’s 2016 regular season finale.

RECORDS
Wesleyan: 10-4, 6-4 NESCAC
Conn. College: 7-8, 3-7 NESCAC

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Cardinals trailed 8-5 at halftime, but held the Camels to a mere three goals in the second half as they outscored their NESCAC rival, 9-3 in the final 30 minutes of play.
• Harry Stanton ’16 led all scorers with four goals, while Niall Devaney ’16 recorded five points on three goals and two assists, and Taylor Ghesquiere ’18 added four points on two goals and two assists. Ben Shively ’18 scored a season-high two goals, while Christian Barker ’19, Quentin DellaFera ’16 and Carter Hawthorne ’19 each scored once. DellaFera also dished out two assists, while Shively led the team with six ground balls. Ted Bergman ’17 made nine saves in net.
• Pierce DellaFera and Wyatt Tompkins each scored three goals for Conn. College, while Derek Bertolini added two and three assists. Jordan Fosters totaled three points (1 G, 2 A), PJ Kelleher had one goal and one assist, and A.J. Vazquez scored once. Ben Parens recorded a game-high nine ground balls, and goalie Bobby Bleistein stopped 15 shots.
• Wesleyan held a 42-36 advantage in shots and won 14-of-27 face offs, while forcing 14 turnovers.

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• It took just 35 seconds for the Cardinals to get on the board as DellaFera connected with Barker early.
• The Camels knotted the game at 1-1 at the 11:32 mark, but with a man down, DellaFera found Devaney for another Wesleyan goal just over a minute later.
• The Cardinals increased their lead to 3-1 with 8:45 remaining in the first quarter when Barker dished it off to Hawthorne. A Conn. College goal by Vazquez just 2:02 later cut the deficit to one, but an unassisted score by Devaney gave Wesleyan a two-goal lead after the first.
• The second quarter was all Conn. College as Tompkins started off the scoring with a goal at the 12:08 mark.
• Ghesquiere dished one off to Stanton with 10:12 remaining, to put Wesleyan up 5-3, but the Camels closed out the half with five consecutive goals, including a score by Bertolini with 0:07 left before the break to put the visitor’s ahead at halftime, 8-5.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• Wesleyan came out strong in the third quarter and got within two at the 13:07 mark after Greg Pietroforte ’16 dished one off to Shively.
• Tompkins put Conn. College back up by three less than two minutes later, but Wesleyan went on a 3-0 run of its own. Quentin DellaFerra capped the stretch with an unassisted goal at the 3:54 mark to even the score at 9-9 entering the fourth.
• Conn. College regained the lead at the 12:09 mark before Stanton evened the score at 10-10 just 12 seconds later.
• With 10:07 remaining, Pierce DellaFera found the back of the net to put the visitor’s ahead by one. However, it proved to be the Camels’ final goal as Wesleyan would score four consecutive to close out the game en route to the 14-11 win.