NEW LONDON, Conn. –
Coast Guard men's lacrosse ended their regular season on a high note as they beat Wheaton College Saturday afternoon for the Bears' senior day at Cadet Memorial Field. The Bears won a close game with a final score of 10-8. In what was a win and in battle between the teams, Coast Guard earned the victory to clinch a berth in the NEWMAC postseason.
Coast Guard ends the regular season with a record of 4-9 and 3-4 in NEWMAC play. Wheaton finished their regular season with a final record of 9-6 and 2-5 in the NEWMAC.
The Bears jumped out to an early 4-0 lead to start the game, including 3 unassisted goals. The Lyons would answer with 3 goals of their own, including 1 with only a second remaining in the first quarter.
Wheaton College tied the game 2 minutes and 9 seconds into the first quarter. Junior attackman
Davis Lee (Newport, R.I.) scored on a man-up opportunity for Coast Guard for them to retake the lead with 11:09 left to play in the second. Just over 2 minutes later, Lee scored again in spectacular behind the back fashion to increase the Bears' lead to 2 goals. The Lyons would not go away, as they scored 2 more goals to end the half tied at 6-6.
The third quarter was not as action-packed as the rest of the game despite Coast Guard having 2 man-up chances. Wheaton College got their first lead of the game with 6:47 left to play in the third quarter. The Bears would answer with a goal of their own 57 seconds remaining by an unassisted goal from
Eric Key (Clarksville, Md.).
Coast Guard came out strong to start the fourth quarter scoring 3 more goals, including 1 on a man-up opportunity. Less than a minute later, the Lyons capitalized on a man-up opportunity of their own, but they could not find the back of the net again to give the Bears a 10-8 senior day win.
Many of the opportunites Coast Guard had on offense today came thanks to the stellar work of
Mason Tucker (Alpharetta, GA) on the faceoff. Tucker was utterly dominant, coming away with 17 of 21 faceoffs with 11 ground balls. On defense, senior
Frederick Wheaton (Attleboro, Mass.) had two caused turnovers with seven other men each recording one. Fellow senior
Dustin Miller (Tyler, Tex.) was excellent in goal, earning the win with seven saves.
Coast Guard will be the number five seed in the NEWMAC tournament and will travel to number four seed Salve Regina on Tuesday April 28th at a time TBD.
