Middlebury broke open a 3-3 game against NESCAC rival Wesleyan with nine straight goals en route to a 12-5 win at Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium on Saturday. During the run, the fifth-ranked Panthers (3-0, 2-0) held the Cardinals (3-3, 0-2) scoreless for nearly 42 minutes of action.
Middlebury jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the Cardinals tied it at two with 7:13 left in the first quarter. Middlebury regained the lead on a man-up strike from Jack Balaban at 5:16 before Wesleyan notched the equalizer at 2:42, when Conor Malangone collected a behind the cage feed from John Froats. For the quarter, the Cardinals held a decisive 6-1 face-off advantage as the Panthers were playing without their top specialist Brian Foster.
Over the next two quarters, Middlebury tallied eight of their nine straight goals, adding four in each stanza. Andrew Conner started the run, grabbing a cross-crease feed from Chris Teves for an 18 yard laser that got beneath Cardinal starting goalie Grant Covington. Three more goals followed, capped by a man-up turn-and-shoot score by Pete Smith off a feed from Teves that chased Covington from the game at 6:46 in the second quarter. Wesleyan reserve Colin Campbell replaced Covington after the Smith goal and kept the Panthers at bay heading into the half trailing 7-3.
The Panthers continued their sharp shooting in the third quarter, with David Hild's score at 11:02. Alex Englert and Peter Smith followed up with tallies before Hild bookended the third quarter scoring on another man-up goal with 59 seconds remaining for an 11-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Teves capped the 9-0 run at 10:37 in the fourth for a 12-3 lead before Malangone ended the Cardinals scoring drought at 5:52. A late goal by Jon Killeen capped the scoring at 12-5 in favor of the Panthers.
Smith paced Middlebury with two goals and three assists, while Hild added a hat trick and Englert netted a pair of goals. Killeen and Malangone each chipped in a pair of goals for Wesleyan. Ryan Deane picked up the win in goal for Middlebury, allowing four goals over 58:28 while stopping 14 shots, as Charles Ward played the final 1:32, allowing a goal with one save. Covington suffered the loss in net for the Cardinals, allowing seven goals over the first 23:14 of action, making one save. Campbell played the next 30:54, allowing five goals with seven saves, as Mark Simmons took the final 5:52, allowing no goals with one save.
Box score
