By Jodie Ng, News Correspondent
The Northeastern men’s club lacrosse team took to Parsons field against Boston College to prove their high caliber talent. In a contest between conference rivals, the Huskies were victorious over the Eagles, 10-9.
Northeastern struck first at the beginning of the game but BC was quick to respond. Despite the Eagle’s best attempts, junior midfielder Josiah Baker-Connick buried another goal to spark the team’s early lead, moving Northeastern in front 6-5 by halftime.
Baker-Connick was among those who put up the highest number of points. He tallied three goals and had two assists. Junior attacker Christopher Tecca said that while Baker-Connick is not a captain, he is still “one of the biggest leaders on this team.”
The fourth quarter proved most critical. With only seconds left on the clock, the Eagles snuck in another goal to tie the game in regulation, carrying the battle into overtime. With a face-off win from senior co-captain Mike Lehmann, junior attacker Daniel Brockwell scored the game-winning goal, bringing the crowd to its feet.
“As soon as Mike won the face-off. I knew we were going to score,” co-captain Tecca said.
Senior midfielder Brian Underhill said the Huskies were “dictating the flow of the game,” and never got intimidated.
“We wanted to make a statement that we are contenders in the league,” Underhill said. “We were ready to play. We knew what we were capable of and we went out and did it.”
Their triumph had both divisional and national implications. Not only did the Huskies defeat a team ranked fourth in the nation, Northeastern also rose up the ladder from being ranked 23rd to 16th in the country.
“If we work together we could beat anybody in the league and I think we showed that,” Underhill said,
During four quarters of play, the offensive efforts never wavered. Right from the start, they were not only aggressively putting numbers on the scoreboard, but continuously dominating each possession.
“We’re just playing our game and trusting our teammates to make plays,” Tecca said. “I wanted us to make sure we as a whole team were able to keep fighting the whole game.”
The Huskies’ defense also showcased a strong performance, only allowing the Eagles to lead once in the second half. Both Brockwell and Underhill commended starting goalie Matthew Mohr who made 11 stellar saves for his fierce defense.
“The difference between a good goalie and a great goalie is a good goalie makes all the saves he’s supposed to,” Brockwell said. “A great goalie makes saves where you think ‘how did he make that?’”
Despite an action-packed win, Tecca said he knows it was not a flawless game.
“We made a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball that we can fix, but it was exciting to know that we can be a team as good as BC,” he said. “We played a great game but we didn’t play anywhere close to our best lacrosse.”
Northeastern is currently undefeated divisionally, 2-0, and 6-1 overall. The team says it plans to ride its momentum for the rest of the season in an attempt to claim the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association title.
“We want to continue our play and we want to be able to win all our conference games,” Underhill said. “We know we can do that so we just got to stick to our game plan and just keep going forward.”
