The Bates men’s lacrosse team scored the first two goals of the game, but No. 11 nationally ranked Middlebury responded with fervor, defeating the Bobcats 14-4 Saturday afternoon at Garcelon Field.
Bates (0-6, 0-4 NESCAC) got on the board first when senior captain Garrett FitzSimons (Garden City, N.Y.) made a save on a shot from Middlebury’s Cooper DeMallie, and delivered a perfect outlet pass to sophomore Ben Miller (Scarsdale, N.Y.). Miller quickly found senior captain Malcolm Klingbeil (Powell, Ohio), who scored his eighth goal of the season, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead with 13:10 left in the first quarter.
Then Bates took advantage of a man-up opportunity, when junior Wil Masterson (York, Maine) connected with first-year Connor Hartman (Hingham, Mass.) with 11:44 on the clock for a 2-0 edge.
Patrick Jamin got Middlebury on the board on an assist from Tom Conley with 8:16 left in the opening quarter. Then it was Middlebury’s turn to convert on some man-up chances, and they got some key ones. The Bobcats lost a pair of players due to penalties and found themselves playing with just eight men on the field.
William Ryan tied the game at two with 7:28 left on an assist from Russell Thorndike and with one of the penalties being non-releasable, the Panthers got another man-up goal to take the lead for good when Will Zink found the back of the net at the 6:49 mark.
The Panthers (6-0, 4-0 NESCAC) led 4-2 at the end of one, and they took command in the second quarter, blanking Bates 4-0. The second quarter saw Thorndike score three of his game-high five goals.
Down 8-2 at halftime, the Bobcats continued to struggle to score in the third quarter as they were blanked 1-0, until first-year Jacob Kodjababian (Seattle, Wash.) scored his first career goal, in remarkable fashion. The long pole defender took the ball off a Middlebury shot clock violation and heaved it 60 yards in the air down field, where it found the back of the net, making the score 9-3 in favor of the visitors with 1:16 on the clock.
But another non-releasable Bates penalty came back to hurt the Bobcats, as the Panthers scored three goals in two minutes, going up 12-3 and putting the game out of reach.
Hartman was able to tally his second goal of the afternoon and his seventh of the season when the rookie found the back of the net with 13:23 left in regulation.
The Panthers peppered the Bates net with 52 shots, forcing FitzSimons to make 15 saves. It was an excellent performance by the captain, with his save percentage of .517 a season-best. The Bobcats finished with just 15 shots and Middlebury’s Hayden Kern earned the win while only having to make three saves.
Middlebury won the face-off battle (14-6), the ground ball battle (29-18) and the turnover battle (17-23).
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