MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury men’s lacrosse team on Saturday grabbed a 7-3 lead early in the third quarter, but a string of 10-unanswered goals by Tufts lifted the sixth-ranked Jumbos to a 13-10 win on Youngman Field in Middlebury. The Panthers’ record was 8-6, 4-5 in NESCAC, heading into Wednesday’s late home game against Williams, while Tufts was 12-1, 8-1 in the league.
Saturday’s game got off to a slow start, as each team managed just two scores in the opening quarter. The Panthers got on the board first at the 9:49 mark when Chase Goree collected a rebound and fired a shot into the back of the cage. The Jumbos countered just over a minute later, as Andrew Seiter found the back of the net. Jack Gould made it 2-1 for the hosts with 7:32 left on a low shot from the right. Seiter tallied again for Tufts on a spinning attempt from eight yards away, as the score remained deadlocked at 2-2 after 15 minutes of play.
In the second quarter, Middlebury regained the lead on a bouncing shot from Henry Riehl at 11:02, followed by a wraparound goal by Danny Jacobs at 5:42 for a 4-2 advantage. Ben Connelly cut the Panther lead to one, scoring in transition nearly two minutes later. Jacobs pushed the Middlebury lead back to a pair at the halftime break (5-3), tallying on a spin shot with 57.6 seconds left.
Middlebury came out of the break, scoring the initial two goals for a 7-3 advantage. Goree tallied when he fought through the defense for a bouncing shot with 13:35 showing on the scoreboard and Riehl picked up his second marker of the contest 43 seconds later.
Then the Jumbos reeled off 10 straight goals, including three man-up tallies, over the next 20:08 to claim a 13-7 lead with 7:44 remaining.
With a little less than four minutes remaining in the final quarter, Riehl finally tallied a man-up score from the left, cutting the deficit to 13-8. Riehl scored just 17 seconds later on a nifty feed from Jake Madnick in transition, and also found the back of the net again with 2:01 left on a bouncing attempt to bring the Panthers to within three at 13-10. The Jumbos won the ensuing faceoff and held on for the three-goal victory.
Riehl led the Panthers with a season-high five goals, extending his goal-scoring streak to 21 games. Madnick went 19-26 on faceoffs and collected a team-best seven ground balls. Panther goalie Charles Midgley had nine saves.
Seiter led the Jumbos with four goals and an assist. Mason Pollack made 23 saves for the Jumbos.
The Panthers on Wednesday were set to host Williams in their regular season finale. The result in that and other games played on Wednesday will determine who and where the Panthers will play in a NESCAC quarterfinal this Saturday.