By the end of a chaotic week of in-conference matchups, the Amherst men’s lacrosse team had claimed two important victories, one of which was over Colby. The purple and white outlasted the Mules to clinch the 12-9 win at home. The real story of the week, however, came just half a week earlier in a nail-biter against Wesleyan.
Following a thrilling loss to Middlebury that saw a near comeback in the fourth quarter, Amherst looked to regain their momentum against a tough Wesleyan team. However, they soon found themselves in a deficit, and had to claw themselves back into the game.
The Cardinals posted the first two goals of the matchup, but junior Matt Killian stopped the bleeding by opening up scoring for the purple and white with an unassisted effort. By the end of the first half, however, Wesleyan held a commanding 6-2 lead.
Amherst continued to show its trademark resilience with a six-goal second quarter that equalized the scoring at 8-8. In the third quarter, Wesleyan pulled away once again, and had all of the momentum with a score line of 16-10 and just 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The purple and white remained undaunted by this adversity. First-year Evan Wolf scored the first of a seven-goal stretch off an assist by Rob Butko ’16. Next, goals by seniors Dylan Park and Kane Haffey put Amherst within striking distance of the Cardinals. An unbelievable individual effort by Quinn Moroney ’16, in which he posted six points in the fourth quarter alone, was the key to this Amherst upset.
It was up to scoring magnet Haffey to secure overtime with just two seconds left on the clock. From then on, it became Amherst’s game to lose. With 3:05 left on the clock in overtime, Park concluded a storybook performance off a pass from Michael Litner ’16, and sent the purple bench into hysterics. They finished the day with an 18-17 win.
This past Tuesday, the purple and white kept their momentum going in a decisive 15-9 win against Connecticut College. Amherst started hot, and by the end of the first quarter held a commanding 6-1 lead. Moroney assisted on each of Amherst’s first six goals en route to nine on the night. The purple and white never let their lead slip, and even extended it to 13-5 by the end of the fourth quarter. The Camels gave Amherst a brief scare by scoring four straight, but the purple and white clinched the win with two late goals.
The team then defeated Conn. College 15-9 on Tuesday behind a nine assist night for Moroney.
In net, Tranbargar posted another strong performance with nine saves, while Brian O’Malley ’17 led the purple and white defensively with three ground balls and three forced turnovers.
Amherst fell behind early when Conn. College’s Pierce DellaFera scored early in the first quarter. The purple and white answered within a minute with a Moroney-to-Haffey connection that led to a goal.
This started a streak of six assists in a row for Moroney, four of which led to goals for Haffey.
Haffey led Amherst with six goals for the game, and by the end of the first, Amherst owned a solid 6-1 advantage.
After a Camels goal early in the second, Amherst extended their lead with four unanswered goals. During this stretch, Wolf managed two assists during this stretch to help the first-year to a four goal, three assist night.
The purple and white held thus held an 11-4 lead at the half, which they stretched to an eight-goal, 13-5 advantage in a low-scoring third quarter. Conn. College managed four goals in the final stanza, but Amherst still walked away with a comfortable win.
In recognition of his excellent performances this week, Moroney was awarded NESCAC player of the week for the second time this season. Over the three games, he had 23 points with seven goals and 16 assists. He is the team leader in points, with 71.
Amherst will play next at Tufts on Saturday, April 16.
