On Saturday, April 22, the Amherst men’s lacrosse team bested NESCAC rival Williams in Williamstown, MA. The 12th-ranked Mammoths outlasted the Ephs, winning by a score of 13-10 to improve to 11-3 overall and 7-2 in conference play.
Evan Wolf ’19 scored the first three goals for Amherst off of passes from Max Keeley ’18 and Jackson Herrick ’20. Although Williams managed to put one past Mammoths goalie Cody Tranbarger ’17, Amherst maintained a slight 3-1 edge after the first frame.

Keeley then started the second quarter with a goal of his own. Although the Ephs quickly responded to cut the deficit to 4-2, another goal from Wolf, this time assisted by Matt Solberg ’20, and a tally from Chris Albanese ’17 pushed the Amherst lead to 6-2.

Williams put two more goals on the board before the halftime to cut the deficit to two, but a goal from Brett Inglesby ’18 gave the Mammoths a 7-4 lead heading into the half.

First-year Colin Minicus continued his strong debut campaign, opening the second-half scoring by capitalizing on a pass from senior Matt Killian.

Two quick-response goals from Williams brought the home team within two again before yet another Killian-assisted goal from Minicus pushed the Amherst lead back to three.

In the last fifteen minutes, the Ephs were able to pull within two goals multiple times but couldn’t reduce the deficit more. A bevy of unassisted efforts from Brogan Mahon ’19, Inglesby, Herrick and Albanese were enough to fend off the hard-charging Ephs and give Amherst the hard-fought 13-10 win.

Overall, Williams outshot Amherst 61-41, while the Mammoths edged the Ephs in ground balls, 44-29, and faceoffs, 23-4. Dylan Finazzo ’20 led Amherst with an impressive 18 groundballs won as the faceoff man, to improve on his 141 groundballs on the season. Tranbarger led Amherst’s defensive effort with 11 saves, bringing his season total to 177 saves, second highest among NESCAC goalies.

Amherst next will take on Trinity on Wednesday, April 26 at 6 p.m. in Hartford, Conn. to close out their regular season. With their success this season in conference play, the Mammoths also look set to host a NESCAC quarterfinal game.