Senior attack Jimmy O’Connell and sophomore attack Tyler Fox scored four goals each to lead the Boston University men’s lacrosse team to a 13-7 victory over Loyola Maryland Saturday.
The Terriers (6-1, 2-1 PL) struck first when senior attack Zach Travaglini sprinted towards the left side of the net for a top-shelf goal.
The Greyhounds (0-7, 0-2 PL) tried to capitalize on a 30-second penalty to even the score, but their efforts were thwarted by senior goalkeeper Will Barnes, later named Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week for a second-straight week after the 11-save performance.
O’Connell made it 3-0 for the Terriers after netting two goals in the last five minutes of the first quarter.
“Our one loss [against Navy], we got down pretty early, so it’s definitely important for us to get out to a lead early and never look back from there,” Fox said.
The Greyhounds broke through for the first time three minutes into the second quarter, when sophomore attack Kennan Everhart shot between Barnes’ legs.
The Terriers responded with three more goals by the end of the quarter, with O’Connell already on his fourth and the Terriers up 7-1.
“We just wanted to treat it like a 0-0 game,” said head coach Ryan Polley. “We have a ton of respect for Loyola. We were up five goals in a playoff game [against them] two years ago, and they made a comeback. So they’re capable of doing that.”
Fox would build off O’Connell’s momentum in the second half, netting his first collegiate hat-trick halfway through the third quarter before adding a fourth in the following frame.
“I was not trying to do too much, kind of doing the same thing that I’ve been doing all year,” Fox said. “[Goals] just started falling today, and our offense was buzzing as a whole, so it made it pretty easy for me to do my job.”
The Terriers had a commanding eight-goal lead heading into the final 15 minutes of the game after the Greyhounds added their second goal in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Junior attack Jimmy Kohr scored twice within a two-minute span to complete a hat trick and put the Terriers up 13-4.
However, as they had two years ago, Loyola began to claw back, scoring three more goals before the game ended, but the Terriers had done enough to hold them off this time.
“I was really pleased with our holistic execution,” Polley said. “We’re stressing to our guys that we need to be mentally prepared and then execute in practice so that we’re ready to go, and that can translate over to the game, and our guys have done that the last two games.”
The Terriers travel to West Point, New York Saturday to face Army in their next conference contest.
