The Mount Ida College men’s lacrosse team was ousted 11-3
by hosting non-conference Amherst College Tuesday afternoon in a
mid-week, make-up game. The Mustangs snap a two game winning
streak with the loss falling to 7-6 overall and remain at a perfect
6-0 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play.
The Lord Jeffs wasted no time getting on the board, and with senior
tri-captain Rob Denious (Bloomfield Hills, MI) scoring on
back-to-back bombs from long distance, Amherst was quickly up 2-0.
The Jeffs stretched their lead to 4-0 as senior tri-captain Thomas
McDonnell (Manhasset, NY) scored consecutive goals, with the second
tally coming off a behind-the-head, no-look feed from Denious.
After Amherst rookie Ramsey Bates (McLean, VA) tacked on an
unassisted score with 1:23 to play in the first quarter, the Jeffs
led 5-0 at the first break. Amherst out-shot Mt. Ida by a 15-2
margin in the opening frame.
Mount Ida scored the first goal of the second quarter at the 13:26
mark. Off a feed from Paul Battapaglia (Clinton,
CT/Morgan), Matthew Savage (Peabody,
MA/Peabody) turned from ten yards out to fire an underhand
shot past Amherst goalie Sam Jakimo (Woodbury, NY). The score was
Savage’s team-leading 35th of the year.
Midway through second, Amherst was forced to play defense two men
down after an offside and an illegal procedure were called on the
same whistle. The Lord Jeff defense held strong, refusing to give
up a momentum shifting score. Moments after getting back to even
strength, Amherst scored to take a 6-1 lead.
McDonnell added his third goal of the night late in the second
quarter, before tacking on a pair of scores in the third frame to
lead all players with five goals. With just 11:16 remaining
in the game, Amherst sophomore Pir Granoff (Bala Cynwyd, PA) scored
his first goal of the season on a nice feed from Alex Fox (Garden
City, NY) on a sneak from behind the cage. Everyone on the field
except for Granoff was expecting a shot from Fox, but the Amherst
points-leader fired a pass to setup the score.
Along with Savage, Battapaglia and junior Dan Harrington
(Westford, MA/Westford Academy) were the other two
Mustangs to net scores while senior Christopher Prophete (Waltham,
MA/Waltham) dished out an assist.
Despite Amherst’s advantage in shots, Mount Ida hung in the
game for much of the day due to an impressive 22 saves from goalie
James McAllister (Smithfield, RI/LaSalle Academy).
The Mustang backstop made 15 saves after the halftime break to keep
the game close. Jakimo was called on for just four saves in the
win.
Mount Ida men’s lacrosse will travel to Green Mountain College for some NAC action Thursday afternoon starting at 4:00 p.m.