Men's lacrosse secured two key victories this past week, bringing its overall record to an impressive 10-3. The Polar Bears won 7-5 against Wesleyan last Saturday, and 10-6 against Colby on Tuesday. The second win brought Bowdoin to 10 wins for the first time since 2009.
"Wesleyan was an outstanding team victory," said Head Coach Tom McCabe. "Everybody played well—goaltending, defense, face-offs, and offense."
The Wesleyan game came with its own unique set of challenges. Unlike many teams in the NESCAC, the Cardinals rely on switching between a strategy of zone defense and man-to-man defense. In zone defense, each defensive player is responsible for a certain area of the field, rather than for guarding one of the players from the opposing team.
"When a team goes into zone defense, you generally can't score as quickly," said captain Keegan Mehlhorn '12.
This made the 4-0 advantage the Polar Bears gained in the first quarter very important.
"If they had built a lead, they could have just sat on it with their zone defense," said Mehlhorn of Middlebury. "It allows them to eat time off the clock."
But Bowdoin did not let this happen.
Early on during the first period, Conor O'Toole '14, Billy Bergner '13, Lawton Salley '12, and Nate Fritts '12 each scored a goal, giving the Polar Bears the lead.
Captain Mark Flibotte '12 helped pad the lead by scoring three goals in the second and third periods.
"They came out in man defense and we scored a few goals, and then they went to zone," said McCabe. "We felt pretty confident attacking the zone defense."
Part of the offense's success reflects the Polar Bears' focus on shooting intelligently.
"We've been working on our shot selection, taking fewer but better shots, and I think that showed in the game against Wesleyan," said Mehlhorn. "Instead of taking every shot that came our way, which is kind of what Wesleyan did, we took the high percentage shots and scored on them."
Bowdoin scored on seven out of the 10 shots on net it took: Wesleyan took 22 shots on net, but scored on five.
Defense also played well. Goaltender Chris Williamson '12 made 17 saves.
"Wesleyan had to pull the attackman that Matt Egan ['12] was guarding out pretty early in the game because Egan kept taking the ball away," said Mehlhorn.
Tuesday's game against Colby coincided with Bowdoin's senior night—the final home game of the seniors' careers—and after the Polar Bears lost to the Mules last year in overtime, the team was itching for a reason to celebrate.
"Colby is always a big game," said McCabe. "Both teams are pretty close record-wise."
Brendan Hughes '12 continued his stellar performance on face-offs, which has been a running theme throughout the season. Against Colby, he won 12 out of 20 face-offs.
Flibotte, Bergner, Fritts, O'Toole, and David Nemirov '15 all scored for Bowdoin.
The team also benefitted from having Egan back in play after he was out for over two weeks with a broken finger.
The Polar Bears go on the road to play at Endicott on Sunday.