Men's Lacrosse | 9/2/2017 11:02:00 PM
MONTREAL --
Cal Callahan of Glenview, Ill., scored the game-winner as the McGill Redmen staved off Queen's to come away with a 7-5 victory in Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association play at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday.
McGill, which improved to a division-leading 7-1 on the season, was uncharacteristically outshot 21-16 by the fifth-place Gaels (2-5). The Redmen led 4-2 after the first quarter and carried a 5-3 advantage into halftime but Queen's scored the only goals of the third to send the teams into the final frame knotted at 5-5.
"It was way too close for comfort," said a relieved Redmen head coach
Tim Murdoch. "Queen's has a lot of talent and played well but we made too many poor passes and poor decisions. We committd to many turnovers on offence and allowed them to hang with us. Despite the fact that we did not play very well, we showed character and pulled out the win after Queen's tied it, and we kept our composure."
Callahan, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound attackman, netted the winning tally in the fourth quarter, assisted by
Maxime Murdoch of Westmount, Que. Murdoch, the coach's son, finished with three points on the day, including one goal.
Goose Bolton of Darien, Conn., and
Scotty Bauer of Newtown, Conn., each scored two goals in the contest.
Liam MacDonald of North Vancouver, B.C., also had a multi-point soiree with a goal and two assists.
The Gaels were led by
Riley Venton, who recorded a hat trick.
Austin Pringle and
Ryan McGuire also scored for Queen's.
McGill goalkeeper
William Waesche, a fifth-year senior from Greenwich, Conn., made 16 saves on 21 shots for the win. His Gaels counterpart,
Thomas Asma, turned away nine of 16 shots in defeat.
"I gave the game ball to Waesche, who saved the day for us, deflecting a lot of Queen's shots that were on goal," added Murdoch.
Queen's (2-5), which has an automatic berth to the CUFLA Final 6 weekend as host team, will confront Bishop's (4-1) in Kingston on Sunday (Oct. 1). The Redmen (7-1) will take on Ottawa (3-5) at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5 at Percival Molson Stadium.
"We have work to do this week as we prepare for Ottawa," said Murdoch. "We are not playing lacrosse at the level where we need to be to win a championship, although we have had a very heavy schedule, having played eight games in the past 23 days."
REDMEN RAP: McGill midfielder
Julian Smith-Voudouris of Stouffville, Ont., was 7-for-15 on faceoffs.
LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE
2017 CUFLA STANDINGS
(updated after games of Sept. 30)
