After a four-point loss to top-ranked Duke University last weekend, the men’s lacrosse squad rebounded with two wins at the Frontier Airlines Face-Off Classic at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

Sophomore attackman and Hartford-transfer Jack Bobzien led the charge on the offensive end, netting three goals in the 15-9 win over Marist College on Saturday, and adding four goals and assist in a 14-3 pummelling of Canisius College this past Sunday.

“Last weekend was clearly disappointing, but it taught us a valuable lesson about how hard we gotta work during the week, and they put in a great week of effort and they got the rewards today and yesterday,” said Head Coach Bill Tierney.

Offense was particularly explosive in the first game of the weekend, tallying seven goals in the first quarter of play against Marist, a burst fueled in part thanks to senior midfielder Harrison Archer’s three scores. The Pios were up 11-5 at half.

The Red Foxes of Marist seemed to be mounting a comeback in the beginning of the fourth quarter, reeling off three goals to DU’s lead to three, 12-9. Freshman attackman Zach Miller stopped the bleeding for the Pios, after split-dodging to the middle of the field and puncturing the top of the net from 10 yards out. Miller’s third goal of the game triggered a three-goal run for the Pios to close out the win.

Defense proved to be the deciding factor in Sunday’s win over Canisius. The Pios held the Golden Griffins scoreless for the first 21 minutes of the game,and held a 7-2 advantage heading into the half.
“I thought our starters did a great job of keeping things under control,” Tierney said. “They never had a letup offensively or defensively, we were very patient today, very unselfish.”

Bobzien had three of DU’s four goals to start the second half, and the defense would go on to give up only one more goal. Senior goalie Jamie Faus was named tournament MVP. He had 10 saves on the weekend.
“[It’s] always pretty humbling getting an award like that but our defense did an amazing job this weekend throughout both games, [only] giving up bad shots, making great slides, making the job easier on Ryan [Laplante] and I,” Faus said.

Junior attackman Wesley Berg, who had 56 goals last year, was quiet on the weekend, scoring three goals and adding two assists. Another highly-touted returnee in senior Jeremy Noble was just as quiet when it came to lighting up the scoreboard, having tallied two assists between Saturday and Sunday’s games. But for Tierney, this did not mean the tandem wasn’t contributing in big ways.

“Everybody’s paying attention to him [Berg],” Tierney said. “What I thought Wes did, today especially [Sunday], was he really kept the ball moving.”

“I thought Jeremy Noble today was fantastic and I don’t even know if he had a point,” Tierney said, referring to Noble’s play against Canisius. “He was just all over the field, ground balls, taking wings [on faceoffs], playing defense, creating offense.”

The Pios head to Philadelphia to take on the 16th-ranked University of Pennsylvania (Penn) on Saturday, March 1.