UMass Boston Men’s Lacrosse started their season off with two wins in their first week, and they have continued to ride that momentum. They’ve looked as sharp as ever as they continue to perform at a high level. The team has won two more games since then, coming away victorious against the University of Hartford and Wheaton College [1].
Against Hartford, the game’s first goal came 11 minutes into the first quarter. According to Beacons Athletics, Brayden McLean, who was making his season debut, scored unassisted to nab the first points of the game. Almost immediately after, Dale Wills netted one himself, putting the Beacons up 2–0 early on [2].
After a small scoring drought, goals started to rain in from both sides. Sean Daly and Luke Murphy gave the Beacons a 4–0 lead, but the shutout was erased with a Hawks goal just seven seconds after Murphy’s. Greg Wolff would answer that with a goal of his own, but the Hawks still had two more in them [2].
Somehow, there were two more Beacon goals before the first ended. Patrick Carey was able to make it a 6–3 game, and Daly would add one more to the Beacons’ score with four seconds left in the quarter. In just under five and a half minutes, the game had gone from 2–0 to 7–3, simply an insane sequence of events [2].
Things would calm down come the second quarter, with only three goals scored entirely. Daly was able to secure his hat trick, but the Hawks put two points of their own on the board before the quarter ended, making the score 8–5 halfway through with the Beacons leading [2].
The madness from earlier on would resume in the third quarter though, with the Hawks scoring the first goal to make it a two goal game. Murphy would net another, but the Hawks answered with two of their own. All of a sudden, the Beacons only led 9–8, their smallest lead of the game. Wolff and Liam Bowler made sure that didn’t last, though, as the two of them scored shortly after. The quarter concluded with one more Hawk goal, the score being 11–9 with one quarter remaining [2].
Murphy put the Beacons up by three again, only for the Hawks to respond. A few minutes later, the exact same thing happened—a Murphy goal followed by a Hawks goal—but that was all the game had left to offer. The Beacons won a fun one, 13–11, moving to 3–0 on the year [2].
In their next game, they went back home to fend off the Lyons. According to Beacons Athletics, the first quarter was almost entirely all Beacons, as they scored the first four goals of the game, one from Daly, one from Wolff and two from Zach Mann. Murphy also picked up two assists early on. They almost closed the quarter with a shutout, but the Lyons managed to get one with just over a minute left, putting the score at 4–1 [3].
The action continued into the second quarter, where the Lyons scored first. Daly shortly followed up with a goal of his own, followed by Wolf and Daly again. After three straight goals, the Lyons finally added another, only for Mic Flynn to get the lead right back to where it was. Two more Lyon goals closed the half out, with the Beacons leading 8–5 [3].
In what has become a trend this game, Daly scored the first goal for the Beacons in the second half, and Patrick Dwinnells joined in on the action by getting one of his own. Another Lyons goal was responded to by Mann and Daly, and it seemed as if the Lyons were playing an impossible game of catch up. They got two more goals in the third quarter, but Daly and Dwinnells put two more on the board before the quarter’s conclusion [3].
The fourth quarter showed an insane display of offense, with both teams scoring eight goals each. The Beacons’ offense was simply too much for the Lyons, and they won this one with ease: 22–16 [3]. This was the most goals they’ve scored in a game so far this season, and there’s no reason to expect them to slow down. As they come back from Spring Break with a two game road trip ahead of them, this squad looks unstoppable. Hopefully they can keep riding that momentum throughout the rest of the season [1].
Sources:
- https://beaconsathletics.com/sports/mens-lacrosse/schedule
- https://beaconsathletics.com/news/2024/3/2/mens-lacrosse-takes-first-ever-tilt-with-hartford.aspx
- https://beaconsathletics.com/news/2024/3/6/big-nights-from-daly-and-lucozzi-pace-mens-lacrosse-against-wheaton.aspx