Men's Lacrosse Destroys Bobcats

By KEVIN BOILARD

The UMW men’s lacrosse team ended their two-game losing skid with an 11-6 victory over Frostburg State University last Saturday, April 7.

On senior day, the Eagles’ sophomore class that stood out in the victory. Sophomore attackmen John Bohlinger and Luke Dick accounted for seven of the Eagles’ 11 goals on the afternoon. Bohlinger also added two assists in the victory.

After falling to Salisbury in the middle of the week, the Eagles looked to rebound early. Dick provided the offensive firepower right out of the gate for UMW. He opened up the scoring after only one minute of play on a goal that was assisted by Bohlinger. By the end of the first quarter, Dick already had a hat trick as the Eagles led, 4-0.
“Our offense got on a bit of a roll early on,” Dick said after the game. “Their goalie wasn’t too impressive so we kept shooting.”

Dick scored his fourth goal of the game with 1:39 left to play in the second quarter, as the Eagles would head into halftime with a commanding 7-2 lead over Frostburg.
The Bobcats struggled to get anything going in the first half. The Eagles’ defensive play and riding were exceptionally physical, causing many groundball situations in which they dominated.

“We showed that we have the ability to jump out in front of a team,” head coach Kurt Glaeser said after the game. “But we’ve been having trouble putting teams away all season.”

Although UMW went into halftime with a significant lead, they weren’t able to fully pull away and in turn allowed Frostburg to hang around.
Senior midfielder Harry Snyder and junior attackman Paul Tunick each netted unassisted goals in the third frame as the defense, led by senior John Tobin who collected four groundballs on the day, kept up their solid play.

With 1:33 left to play in the third quarter, sophomore attackman Billy Kelly capitalized on a feed from freshman attackman Greg Smith, putting the Eagles up 10-2 and giving the team their largest lead of the game.

With an eight-goal lead heading into the final frame, the Eagles began to let up and the Bobcats made a final push.

Frostburg scored three straight goals to open the fourth quarter, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 10-5. After being held scoreless for most of the quarter, Bohlinger finally provided an answer to the Bobcats sudden offensive success at the 1:53 mark. The sophomore’s goal was his third of the game and it came off a failed clear attempt by Frostburg, resulting in an easy open net shot for the team’s leading scorer.

Bohlinger’s goal seemingly clinched the win for the Eagles as they cruised the rest of the way to an 11-6 victory. The Eagles will take on the Hood College Blazers this Saturday in another CAC matchup.

“We’re going to have a big week of practice,” Bohlinger said. “Since we don’t have a game on Wednesday, we can prepare all week for Hood.”

Glaeser plans on giving the team the day off on Wednesday but expects everyone to be mentally and physically prepared for the task at hand.

“Hood is a scrappy team that plays with a lot of energy,” Glaeser said. “It’s a game we can definitely win, but it’s not a sure thing if we play the way we did today.”

The Eagles (8-4, 3-3 CAC) are heading into their final two games of the regular season and are currently positioned to enter the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed.