Panthers suffer first loss of season in OT

After holding off a scrappy, out-of-conference Springfield team on Wednesday afternoon at Kohn Field, the fifth-ranked men’s lacrosse team traveled to Wesleyan on Saturday to play the then 4–0 Cardinals. In Connecticut, 29 seconds into the first overtime period, Middlebury suffered its first defeat, falling to 2-1 on the season and 1-1 in conference play. In the process, Wesleyan avenged a 12-5 regular season defeat at the hands of Middlebury last year.
Coming off an impressive five goal performance just three days prior, the squad’s leading scorer and this week’s NESCAC Player of the Week, David Hild ‘11 faced stiff resistance from the Wesleyan defensive zone in the form of individualized preparation and aggressive sliding- special treatment he can expect from defenses all season long.
Not to be denied, the senior co-captain netted four of his team’s eight goals as well as an assist. With the aid of fellow starting attack men, Mike Giordano ’13 and Tim Cahill ’12, who complement his brute strength with innovative mobility and field awareness, Hild kept the team within reach the entire game. With 9:41 left in the fourth quarter, Cahill dove across the face of net, slipping his second equalizing shot past the Wesleyan goalkeeper and forcing the final deadlock.
Although the Panther midfield core found the back of the net early with two goals from John McGoldrick ’14 and Erich Pfeffer ’13, they were largely quieted as the afternoon wore on. A struggle to find a consistent rhythm and to establish lasting momentum was evident in the lack of assists tallied in the box score, just two, and the number of face-offs won by the Cardinals, 13 of 19.
While the Middlebury defenders played physical, disciplined ‘on ball’ defense, their opponents capitalized on seams, which opened up on the crease and the backside. Matt Rayner ’12, the undisputed leader of the defense, was forced to leave the field with what appeared to be a shoulder injury after nearly ending a Wesleyan player’s athletic career with a jarring hit.
Last year the Panthers played Wesleyan in their third game of the season just like this year, but beat them 12-5.
Despite this fact, Peter Jennings ’12 saw the game as a learning experience for the team looking forward to the rest of the season.
“Wesleyan exposed flaws in both our offense and defense that we can fix going forward,” Jennings said. “They managed to disrupt the flow of our offensive attack. This will be a big week of practice as we try to fix some of these problems and get guys healthy to come out strong against Conn.”
The team will have much time to improve on this loss with 10 more games, seven of which are NESCAC games, before the NESCAC playoffs which begin May 1.
Middlebury returns to action on March 26 when it hosts Conn. College before traveling to Washington D.C. over spring break to take on Washington and Lee. From there, the team will be thrown into the heart of their season, playing both Amherst and Bowdoin their first week back.