LEWISTON — The Bates men’s lacrosse team knows how to beat Keene State College. The Bobcats beat the Owls in each of the past three regular seasons — by increasing margins — and knocked them out of the NCAA Division III Tournament in the first round last year.
No win was guaranteed when the teams faced off at Garcelon Field on Wednesday evening, however. The Bobcats entered the game ranked No. 6 in the USILA Coaches poll, but they needed a goal in the final seconds to hold off the Owls for a 14-13 victory.
Bates (6-1) called timeout with 57.3 seconds left to set up the game-winning goal. The Bobcats put the ball in Charlie Fay’s stick, hoping the 6-foot-4 midfielder could use his size to score his fifth goal of the game. But Keene State (3-3) made sure to cut off Fay’s path to the goal, and Bates had to find another way.
There aren’t many better backup plans than Bates senior Jack Allard, who entered the game tied with Fay for the team lead in goals. From his spot behind the net, Andrew Melvin found Allard to the right of the goal, and Allard’s underhand shot beat Mat Howe with 16.6 seconds left.
“I saw that there was like 20 seconds left, so when Melvin threw it to me I just ran right at it. I knew I just wanted to shoot,” Allard said. “And it had been going in low-to-high on this goalie, so I knew that was the one shot I needed to take, and I was lucky enough it went in.”
Allard called the underhand attempt his “signature shot,” and one he said he practices often.
Bates had five different scorers in the game, including Allard and Fay with four goals each, but head coach Peter Lasagna said he wasn’t surprised that it was Allard who scored the game-winner.
“I think we have a few guys that can do it, but he has a particular flair for the dramatic,” Lasagna said of Allard. “And he’s a really special shooter, really special finisher, and wants the ball in his stick in those moments.”
The Bobcats got off to a shaky start, falling behind 1-0 and 3-1 before finishing the first quarter with three consecutive goals. Those goals didn’t come easily, though. Howe stopped five of Bates’ nine shots in the opening period.
“That goalie was really getting right in front of the ball, he was stepping right at it,” Allard said of the sophomore Howe. “He didn’t make a lot of stick saves, but he was a big kid, he could really step into it.”
Clarke Jones scored 16 seconds into the second to put Bates up 5-3, but the Owls scored five of the final seven goals in the quarter to take an 8-7 lead into halftime. Robert Hart and Tyler McKelvie each had a first-half hat trick for Keene State.
A handful of those goals came on the counter-attack for the Owls, who were able to get some turnovers off of extended Bates possessions and turn them into quick goals.
Lasagna credited assistant coach Trevar Haefele with making the adjustment to slow down the Keene State counter. That slowed down the Owls’ offense to a trickle, with only a single goal early in the third quarter.
The Bobcats, meanwhile, scored four straight goals to end the third and take an 11-9 lead into the fourth. Fay had a pair of goals, both off Jake Walsh assists ,43 seconds apart to break a 9-all tie.
Putting away the Owls proved difficult. Keene State stormed back with a McKelvie goal less than two minutes into the fourth and a Tyler Reilly score at the halfway point to knot things at 11.
The final five minutes saw Keene State go up by one before Bates scored two to reclaim the lead. Bryan Rotatori’s goal with less than three minutes to play pulled Keene even and set up Allard’s heroics.
“We have a lot of respect for this team. We know that their offense is going to put up a lot of goals,” Allard said. “We knew that today our offense was going to have to be efficient if we wanted to win this one. Putting up 14, that was just enough to win today.”
The Keene State offense took advantage of a less-than 100-percent Joe Faria in net for Bates. Faria was not fully recovered from an ankle injury he suffered in Saturday’s victory over Trinity.
He allowed eight goals on 12 shots before being taken out at halftime. Freshman Mitchell Drake took over in the second half and gave up five goals on seven shots.
“I thought he was pretty good,” Lasagna said of Drake. “I didn’t think he had a ton of chances on a lot of them. One, maybe, that he could have had or should have had. But he made a couple big saves for us as well, and it’s just neat to see a freshman ready to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Howe had 20 saves on 34 shots for Keene State but couldn’t shut down a balanced Bates offense.
“We have a lot of people that you have to try to defend,” Lasagna said.
“This is the best offense I’ve played with in my four years that I’ve been here,” Allard added.
Allard admitted that Wednesday’s tilt was a bit of a trap game, coming between key NESCAC games against Trinity and Williams. Lasagna said playing a nail-biter against a non-conference foe was “absolutely” a good experience for his team.
“To come out of class, and come here on a Wednesday, and play that hard against a team that good, says a lot about our kids,” Lasagna said.
Bates will host Williams at 1 p.m. on Saturday in a matchup of teams that are 2-1 in NESCAC.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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