The Keene State men’s lacrosse team rallied from a six-goal deficit in the first quarter to stun eighth-ranked Bowdoin, 13-12, on Ryan Field on Tuesday evening.
The Owls improved to 7-3 after handing Bowdoin (9-2) its first loss since March 5, snapping the Polar Bears’ nine-game winning streak.
The Polar Bears seemed in command in the early going, sprinting to a 7-1 lead after one quarter of play. Brett Kujala and Peter Reuter sparked the run with two goals each, while defenseman Billy Valle and face-off specialist Sam Carlin also added unlikely scores to give the hosts the early edge.
Keene fought its way back into the contest with a 3-1 run in the second quarter, getting goals from Bryan Rotatori, Tyler McKelvie and Tyler Reilly to close the gap to 8-4 at the break.
The Owls dominated the third quarter, scoring five unanswered goals in the first 10:04 to take a 9-8 lead. Five different players scored in the run before Bowdoin was able to tie the game at nine on a score from Shawn Daly.
Keene replied with a pair of goals before the end of the period from Hunter Arnold and Rotatori to take an 11-9 lead in the final frame.
Bowdoin closed to within a single goal on three occasions in the fourth quarter, only to see Keene answer twice with goals to push the lead back to two. Kujala trimmed the Keene lead to 13-12 with 2:19 to go and Bowdoin had one more chance to knot the score, but a shot by Daniel Buckman with under a minute to play was saved by Mat Howe to preserve the win for the visitors.
McKelvie sparked the Keene attack with two goals and three assists, while Rotatori had a team-high four goals and one helper. Reilly also had three goals for the Owls, while Arnold had two goals and two assists.
Bowdoin was paced by four goals from Kujala, and a goal and two assists from Daly.
Bowdoin travels to Wesleyan on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Women’s lacrosse
Sasha Fritts scored five goals to lead Colby to an 11-5 NESCAC win over Bowdoin on Tuesday evening at Alfond Field in Waterville.
The Mules improved to 9-2 (5-2 NESCAC), while the Polar Bears fell to 5-7 (1-7 NESCAC).
Fritts scored the first three goals of the game to give Colby the early lead. Bowdoin got one back from Lindsay Picard before the Mules replied with a pair of scores in the final 14 minutes to take a 5-1 lead at halftime.
Bowdoin scored two of the first three goals in the second half as Picard and Megan O’Connor closed the gap to 6-3 with 21 minutes remaining.
Colby rebounded with a 4-1 run, including two more goals from Fritts, to extend its advantage to 10-4 with 4:30 to go.
Izzy Scribano made five saves for Colby, while Kayli Weiss and Erin Morrissey made two saves apiece for the Polar Bears.
Bowdoin was led by two goals from Picard, who also had four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Anisa LaRochelle had three ground balls and two caused turnovers for the Polar Bears.
Bowdoin returns home for a conference game against Wesleyan on Saturday at noon.
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