The Bears went 1-2 over the weekend at home in the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center, winning their first game of the weekend against the Connecticut College Camels, but losing the last two by close margins against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineers and the St. Francis College Terriers.
The squad (10-8, 5-4) first faced off against the Camels (1-14, CWPA 0-6), and the team gained an early lead it maintained throughout the game.
The Bears scored six goals in the first quarter and added on another five goals in the second quarter. The team went into halftime with an 11-0 lead.
The squad widened its margin even further during the second half, holding the Camels to only four goals while scoring seven of their own. The match finished as an 18-4 Bruno victory — a season-high goal total for the squad. Warren Smith ’17 scored four goals, and Luke Irwin ’17 tallied another three goals, leading the way to the largest margin of victory this season.
The Bears’ first match Saturday put them against the Engineers (6-9, 6-5), as the two teams faced each other for a third time this season. Though Bruno had defeated the Engineers the first two times the teams met, the Bears fell short this weekend. Going into halftime, the score was even at 8-8, but the Engineers pulled away with a two point lead. Henry Fox ’15 contributed seven goals, while Walker Shockley ’14 made a total of eight saves.
Later that day, the Bears took on the Terriers (10-4, 5-1) for the third time this season — Bruno had come up short twice against St. Francis this season, by a total of three points. In this match, the score was tied at 5-5 going into the third quarter, before the Bears began to pull away. The squad scored four points in the third quarter and limited the Terriers to just one point.
But the Terriers emerged victorious yet again — St. Francis responded by scoring four goals while holding Bruno scoreless in the fourth quarter. The match finished with a 10-9 win for the Terriers, resulting in the third loss for the Bears in the season series. Fox led the scorecard with four goals, finishing the weekend with a total of 12 scores in three matches. Shockley was between the bars against the Terriers and stopped seven shots.
“We had lots of great opportunities to score, but we were not able to put them away,” Fox said. “They were able to take advantage of our mistakes, and there was a total shift of momentum … but it was a good learning experience.”
The Bears finish off their regular season home schedule this weekend with three conference games, including rematches against the Harvard Crimson (8-8, 6-1), Iona College Gaels (3-16, 2-3) and Fordham College Rams (11-7, 3-2).
“We have been focusing on putting all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Fox said. “We want to be at our best on both offense and defense this weekend.”
The Bears will celebrate Senior Night Saturday, honoring the five squad members who will leave the team after this season: James McNamara ’14, Shockley, Chris Culin ’14, Eric Robb ’14 and Grant Villeneuve ’14.
“They have been great teammates,” Fox said. “We look forward to finishing the season with their leadership.”
After this weekend’s conference games, Bruno will travel to Penn to compete in the Ivy League Championships from Oct. 19-20.
“Every weekend we want to build on the previous weekend — we are especially looking forward to getting our first look this season at our rival, Princeton,” Fox said. “We want to take the momentum from these games for our California trip the weekend after.”
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