Courtesy of Brian Beard

Last Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team (9–3; 5–3 NESCAC) defeated Trinity College (6–6; 3–4 NESCAC) 20–15 after overcoming a two-goal deficit and scoring ten goals in the second half.  The team continued its momentum on Wednesday night when it defeated Colby College (2–8; 0–7 NESCAC). Now having won six of their past seven games, the Polar Bears are aiming to finish their season strong and looking towards the postseason.

In the back-and-forth game against Trinity, attacker Patrick Fitzgerald ’25 led Bowdoin with five goals and one assist. Attacker Matt Ward ’23 earned four goals and two assists and attacker Jason Lach ’25 had a hat trick.

Ward believes that patience was essential in Bowdoin’s win against Trinity, especially when Trinity went on a 4–1 run at the beginning of the third quarter.

“We just stayed patient. We kept trusting each other. I think trust is a big thing on our team. When faced with adversity, we just trust the person next to us and they start making plays. We just kind of made spark play after spark play and slowly came back. We didn’t try to make two goals in a row, we just stuck with one,” Ward said.

Ward added that once the Polar Bears chipped away at the deficit and found themselves in the lead, clock management became a priority.

“Game management towards the end of the game really helped us not feel as though we need to go to the net every time but instead take time off the clock in order to kind of preserve that win. I thought we particularly moved the ball well and played against the zone defense really well and cracked the zone,” Ward said.

Ethan Barnard ’23 also played a key role in the victory, having won 21 of 37 faceoffs.

“The long-stick midfielders and the defensive midfielders that are on the wings in the face off have been excellent all year, and they definitely helped scrap up a ton of wins. Once we win the face off, they’re very good at pushing transitions to the offense to score quickly, so that’s definitely been the key,” Barnard says.

Fitzgerald added that the win was a team effort.

“I think we shot the ball pretty well offensively,” Fitzgerald said. “We had a lot of guys that were contributing to some of the guys that normally play more on the defensive end push and transition. A lot of the midfielders I think had some important and crucial goals in the win.”

The Polar Bears continued their offensive efforts in Wednesday’s game against Colby, when Bowdoin scored a season record-tying 22 goals. The Polar Bears tallied eight goals in the second quarter and added seven straight goals in the third. Attacker Will Byrne ’24 had a career-high seven assists, and Lach had a six-goal performance.

The victory against rival Colby felt especially rewarding.

“Everyone was pretty amped up to play. I was pretty excited to play.… It’s the game that we have circled just because it’s Colby, and we really [wanted] to win,” Barnard said.

Barnard attributes the team’s overall success this season to its treating of each game equally, regardless of the opposing team’s ranking.

“We just go over film from the other team in the days leading up to it and try to treat everybody like they are one of the best teams,” Barnard said.

The Polar Bears will play against Emerson College (5–8) on Tuesday at Whittier Field.