MONTREAL –
Zach Bye registered a hat-tick and was one of eight Redbirds to score as McGill toppled the visiting Trent University Excalibur 12-7 in a matchup of undefeated men's lacrosse teams at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday.
The result snapped a string of five consecutive losses to Trent since the last McGill victory, a 5-3 decision in Peterborough, Ont., on Oct. 26, 2019.
McGill had a slight 22-21 edge in shots and Trent took five of the nine penalties called.
In a writer's dream matchup of musically-named goaltenders,
Joe Walsh, whose claim to fame was that "life's been good", shredded
Jackson Brown, who was more famous for "running on empty". Walsh, a first-year transfer from the NCAA's Colgate University, made three acrobatic saves early on to quell the Excalibur and ended up with 14 saves for the victory. Brown, a fifth-year veteran, made 10 saves and took the loss.
Trent scored an unsettling opening goal but the Redbirds bounced back to lead 4-1 after the opening quarter, 6-4 at halftime and 8-6 after three, then quadrupled the visitors again by winning the final quarter 4-1.
"It was a really big win for us, its the way we won that I was particularly happy with," said third-year McGill bench boss
Nicolas Soubry, who collected his first conquest in six tries against the Excalibur. "We had a more balanced attack with a lot of assists, where we had a good dodge (initiating a one-on-one), drew a good slide (the defensive player sends an extra player to stop dodge) and passed it to the open guy who had a good shot. It was text-book offence out there today"
Bye, who ranks fourth among league leaders with a dozen goals in four games played, put his side ahead 4-1 late in the first quarter. He notched his second of the soiree with seven seconds left in the third to give McGill an 8-6 lead, then completed the hat-trick with a power-play marker to make it 12-6 in the fourth.
Teammate
Joshua Jewell added a pair of goals, with singles coming from the sticks of
Sam MacDonald,
Mark Symon,
John Miraglia,
Torsten Blodgett,
Alex Erbstein and
Preston Norris.
Jack MacAlpine responded with a hat-trick for Trent and
Michael Anderson added a pair. Singles went to
Mason Tardiff and former McGill star
Dylan James, who graduated after meriting League MVP honours last season and transferred to Trent for post-grad studies.
These arch-rivals will cross paths one more time before post-season play, in Peterborough on Oct. 19.
McGill, which improved to 4-0, is now tied with Trent (4-1) for the division lead in the six-team CUFLA East, but holds a game in hand. In a short, 10-game regular season schedule, the Redbirds now control their destiny for an all-important first place finish, which gives the team a significant home-field advantage throughout the playoffs as travel is a major factor in this league.
Trent plays at Bishop's (1-3) on Sunday (Sept. 22), while McGill heads out to Bishop's on Thursday (Sept. 26).
SCORING SUMMARY
CUFLA STATS & STANDINGS
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL:
514-983-7012
E-MAIL:
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
