MONTREAL – Co-captain
Maxime Murdoch of Westmount, Que., scored his second hat-trick of the season to help the McGill University men's lacrosse team defeat Ottawa 9-4 at Percival Molson Stadium, Sunday.
McGill, which defeated the Gee-Gees 11-4 earlier this season, improved its unblemished record to 6-0 in league play, while Ottawa dropped to 1-5. McGill now owns a 14-1 lifetime record against the Gee-Gees, outscoring them by a 191-80 margin.
The hosts never trailed, leading 2-1 after the first quarter, 4-1 at halftime and 6-3 after three.
Murdoch, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound attackman, put McGill ahead 3-0 late in the first quarter and struck twice in the third to give McGill a healthy 5-1 and 6-2 cushion. He now leads the team with 13 points in six matches.
Teammate
Seth Obadia, a sophomore from Port Washington, NY, contributed four points, including a pair of goals.
Rounding out the scoring for McGill were
Andrew Chase,
Kerry Kane,
Naoll Degife and
Scotty Bauer, while midfielder
Liam MacDonald collected three assists.
Four different marksmen tallied for Ottawa, including
Frederick Hartley,
Wade Miner,
Liam McCrory and
Zacharie Lefebvre.
"At the end of September we're where we want to be atop the East, but we have work to do and we will use October to improve into playoff form," said McGill head coach
Tim Murdoch. "While happy with win, we started off sluggishly and missed too many scoring chances due to poor shot selection, which allowed Ottawa to stay with us at halftime.
"We're banged up and bruised, playing without eight injured players today, so I'm happy that we were able to finish the month undefeated."
Among the missing in action -- due to a recent rash of injuries -- was all three face-off specialists (
Gardie Herr,
Julian Smith-Voudouris and
Hayden Middlebrook).
Defencemen
Tanner Baldin and
Oliver Bolsterli stepped in for face-off duty in their absence and successfully contained Ottawa's
Teilan Celentano, who was kept off the scoresheet.
Three of McGill's four goaltenders saw action. freshman
Joseph Boehm started and saved two of three shots before being relieved by
David Pellicionne, the older of the sibling duo, who kicked aside five of seven shots and registered the victory in a 30-minute stint. He was replaced in the final stanza by
Steven Pelliccione, who allowed one goal on two shots in his 15-minute segment.
Evan Fox took the loss for Ottawa and saved 11 of 20 shots.
Ottawa (1-5) travels to Peterborough, Ont., to take on Trent University (5-1) on Oct. 4.
McGill (6-0) will look to extend its win streak to seven when third-place Queen's (3-3) visits Molson Stadium on Oct. 6 at 4:15 p.m.
BOXSCORE
2019 CUFLA STANDINGS
