LEWISTON, Maine -- The No. 14-ranked Wesleyan University men's lacrosse team outscored Bates College 5-1 in the second quarter and rode the advantage into an 11-8 NESCAC conference win on Saturday at Campus Avenue Field. The Cardinals (5-1, 2-1 NESCAC) won their fifth straight game, while the host Bobcats dropped to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in conference play.

Wesleyan received two goals apiece by Dan Latzman, Jon Killeen and Conor Malangone, while Jason Ben-Eliyahu dished out three assists. Tyler Moore scored three goals for Bates, while David Barrett added two.

First-year goalie Adam Scharff came up with 13 saves for Bates, as Wesleyan outshot Bates by a 32-23 margin. Mike Borrero started in goal for Wesleyan and made four saves while allowing seven goals; Colin Campbell relieved him for the final 14:46 and made three saves, allowing one Bates goal.

Bates tied the game for the second time at 2-2 in the final two seconds of the first quarter, when Scharff made a save on a Wesleyan extra-man opportunity and lofted the ball downfield to Moore, who shot into an open Wesleyan goal from just past midfield.

Wesleyan shrugged it off, however, going on a 5-0 run to start the second quarter on goals by Latzman, DJ Bernatavitz, Adam Kirk, Malangone and Killeen, the latter two coming on extra-man opportunities. Wesleyan was 3-5 on EMOs for the game, while Bates was 0-2.

Moore closed the gap to 7-3 with 2:38 left in the half and that's where the score stayed at halftime. The Bobcats made it a 3-0 run with goals by Barrett and Sam Geller, closing the gap to 7-5. John Froats made it 8-5 with 7:50 left in the third on a feed from Russ Follansbee, and neither team scored in the next seven minutes, until Bates' Evan Bagley scored unassisted with 15 seconds left in the period, narrowing the gap to 8-6.

Bates' Pat Jackson scooped the ground ball off of the faceoff that started the fourth quarter and dished to Moore, who banged in his third goal from the outside to bring Bates to within one, 8-7, with 14:46 left. Latzman answered for the Cardinals with an unassisted goal seven minutes later, but Barrett again made it a one-goal difference at 9-8 with an unassisted tally with 6:24 left in the game. Wesleyan converted one more extra-man goal, with Ben-Eliyahu feeding Malangone with 3:23 left, and Gabe Kelley gave the Cardinals an insurance goal with 51 seconds left.

Bates next plays at Southern Maine on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.; Wesleyan plays at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

2009-03-21