By Marisa Ingemi
BU News Service
Every step a young program takes is a positive, especially when it comes to beating a team ahead of it in the conference standings. Defeating a sixteenth ranked team and a historic icon in college lacrosse is something special, and that’s just what Boston University did on Saturday with a 10-9 victory over Navy in double overtime.
BU was trailing 4-2 late in the second quarter and struggled to create any offense before sophomore midfielder Cal Dearth tore down the field and fired a shot behind Navy goaltender John Connors. With just eight seconds until halftime and down 4-3, the Terriers stole all momentum.
Down by two goals late in the fourth quarter, BU scored quickly to make it a one goal game before faceoff man Sam Talkow won a key draw and found space in the middle of the lane towards the net and tied the game with 47 seconds remaining. It was his fourth goal of the season, and head coach Ryan Polley said that it was a designed play.
“We went down with seven or eight minutes to go, and had four or five possessions where we either didn’t score or we turned it over, and there was no panic. We knew if we could just score, we could win a faceoff, and Sam [Talkow] is a great offensive player and gives us the ability to score.”
The Terriers were leading Navy 6-5 going into the fourth quarter, but with just one second left in the third, Adam Schaal scored for the first time this season to give BU a 7-5 lead. Navy quickly came back and took a two goal lead itself with four goals in the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter before BU could tie it.
Both teams had chances to score throughout the first and second overtime periods, with Navy having a key opportunity early in the first OT, but it was saved by Carson-Bannister with a hockey-like kick save. Navy kicked up its rebound but hit the side of the crossbar.
BU had several chances as well, including Burr being found open at the side of the crease by Jack Wilson, but he missed just wide. Burr had another chance when Brendan Homire picked up his second assist from the game with a pass from behind the net where he found Burr open and he buried his 13th goal of the year.
The game was the first overtime contest in the history of the young program. It was the second double overtime loss of the year for Navy, which lost to Johns Hopkins early in the season at home.
“I was so proud of how we responded,” Polley said. “The fact that we could get stops, score that goal to get it to one, and then the goal from [Sam] Talkow to tie it, but even moreso, the defense just stepped up.”
BU will be back in action next week when it travels to Buffalo to face Canisius in a non conference game.