The 17th-ranked Middlebury men's lacrosse team blanked the 16th-ranked Amherst Mammoths across nearly 20 minutes of second-half action, helping secure a 12-5 win on Saturday from Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium. Following the contest, the Panthers honored seniors
Cooper DeMallie,
Drew Dummer,
J.D. Farkas,
Owen Halter,
Jackson Hanson,
Brendan Hickey,
Hayden Kern,
Misha Trupo and
Logan White.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Alex Vlacich pushed the visitors in front with 44 seconds expired, rolling left and burying a shot into the lower-left corner.
- The Panthers leveled the contest at the 1:17 mark. White found Will Ford as he snuck into a gap in the Amherst zone. Ford bounced his bid into the back of the net.
- Kern denied a sure goal in the final seconds of the opening session, throwing his stick up while falling to rob Ben Wick of a top-shelf finish.
- White etched his first tally just 1:13 into the second quarter, spinning to his left and mustling a bid through contact into the left panel.
- Middlebury added to the lead at the 11:22 mark. White drew a trio of Mammoths and found an unmarked DeMallie, who spiked a one-timer into the back of the net to make it a 3-1 contest.
- Shaded to his left, White used a quick cut right to free his hands and rustle the left panel again, widening the lead to three (4-1) with 6:51 gone.
- Max Youssefnia halted the Panther run with 5:26 left in the half, weaving around a high screen and stepping into a low-left finish to cut the deficit to 4-2. Wick added a player-up strike in the final 90 seconds to establish a 4-3 halftime score.
- Vlacich connected from a sharp angle to restore the deadlock at 4-4 with 2:28 gone in the third stanza.
- Brendan Hickey started the decisive run, sneaking a bouncing jumpshot over the line (5-4) at the 11:36 mark.
- Ford uncorked a screamer from the left alley just over a minute later, while John McCarthy joined the goal column with 7:19 to go to build a 7-4 lead.
- Middlebury continued to prowl late in the session. White found nylon on a high-to-low opportunity with just under six minutes remaining. Ford capped the frame with a quick catch-and-shoot off a feed from McCarthy, arranging a 9-4 contest heading into the final 15 minutes.
- McCarthy (8:55), DeMallie (7:04) and Ford (4:45) blanketed the fifth Amherst goal from Sam Schafer in the fourth quarter to finalize the 12-5 decision.
NOTES
- White concluded his afternoon with six points on three markers and three helpers.
- Ford scored four goals in the victory.
- Dummer amassed three ground balls and caused four Mammoth miscues, moving to second in career program history (83).
- The Panthers improved to 47-27-1 in the all-time series against Amherst and have won five of the last six meetings.
Middlebury concludes the regular season on Wednesday, welcoming Williams to Vermont at 4:30 p.m.