The Washington College men's lacrosse team has turned out strong performances in the past few weeks. The team put up very strong efforts against tough opponents Limestone and Middlebury College. The team walked away from these two hard matches with one win.
The Shoremen defeated the defending Division II National Champion, #1 Limestone, 13-12, on Saturday, March 24. The big play of the game occurred when junior Craig Rentch converted a pass from freshmen Steve Berger with 0:48 left for the game winning goal.
The game was close throughout the first half, with the Saints holding a slim 6-5 halftime lead. Limestone began to take control of the game in the third scoring four goals to Washington's three.
At the start of the fourth quarter the score was 10-8 in favor of Limestone.
Washington opened the periods scoring with an unassisted goal from Rentch at the 13:44 mark. Limestone quickly countered and scored a goal of their own to make the score 11-9. The competitive Shoremen came right back at the 9:05 mark with a goal by Berger. Dan Meehan assisted Berger on the play. The two teams then battled back and forth for six minutes until the 3:49 mark when Limestone again took a two-goal lead on a goal by Brad Bauer. Washington then scored three straight goals to come away with the victory. Eric Kuehn would score his second goal of the game, off a pass from Meehan, to bring the Shoremen within one goal in the remaining two minutes of the game. Berger earned his third tally in the contest to tie the game with 1:22 remaining. In an edge of the seat play Rentch then tossed in the winning goal with 0:48 left. At the conclusion of this game Washington College was ranked 14 in the USILA/STX Division III national poll.The Shoremen experienced a hard-played defeat against Division III #1 Middlebury College, losing in overtime on Wednesday, March 28. Middlebury defeated WC 17-16, with the game winner scored by junior Zack Herbert off a pass from Matt Dunn with 3:13 remaining in the overtime period. The Shoremen battled hard the entire game and the loss was a very close one.
Washington jumped to an early 4-2 lead after the first quarter, but Middlebury would outscore the Shoremen in the second quarter to deadlock the score at four. At the half the teams were tied, 5-5. Middlebury came out strong in the third quarter, scoring six goals. They held an 11-7 lead over the Shoremen heading into the fourth quarter. Washington opened the period's scoring at the 14:37 mark with a goal from Jon Fellows. Rentch had the assist on the play. Middlebury matched that score with an unassisted goal from Greg Bastis a mere 13 seconds later. The Shoremen would then tally five consecutive goals to take a 13-12 lead. During that scoring onslaught Berger scored two goals and senior Nick Nylund had one goal and one assist.
Middlebury came back with a 4-1 run powered by two goals by Holt Hopkins. With less than a minute left Middlebury held a 16-14 advantage, but the Shoremen made another dramatic comeback. Kuehn converted a pass from Fellows with only 29 seconds left in the game. Rentch immediately returned and scored an unassisted goal with 0:18 on the clock to tie the score and send the game into overtime.Herbert would score the game winner off a pass from Dunn at the 3:13 mark of the sudden death overtime period.
The Shoremen next travel to Centennial Conference rival Franklin & Marshal College. Face-off is at 1:30 p.m.
Washington currently leads all Centennial Conference teams in fielding with a .968 fielding percentage.
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