POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (April 27, 2016) — Three seniors played their final home game Wednesday night, as the Vassar College men's lacrosse team beat Bard College on Weinberg Field, 12-4.
"It's definitely bittersweet," senior T.J. Morrow said. "It's tough to know we're not going to play out on our turf anymore, but the program's headed in a great direction."
Morrow, Nick Page and Noah Parson form Vassar's winningest senior class in program history. With Wednesday night's victory, the Brewers improve to 8-7 overall and 3-3 in conference play, while the Raptors fall to 4-10 and 0-6 in the Liberty League.
"Today we got our eighth win, which guarantees at least a .500 record," coach Marc Graham said. "But more importantly, we put ourselves in a position to earn a playoff berth."
With one game remaining in the regular season, Vassar is currently seeded fifth, while Union College is fourth. A win over the Dutchmen would put the Brewers ahead in the standings.
Graham credited his assistant coaches, John McCreery, Drew Nesmith and Dieter Treusdell, for putting the team in a position to get into the playoffs while he was away for part of the season.
"My assistant coaches have done such a great job in my absence," Graham said. "We wouldn't be in this position if they hadn't stepped up and done such a great job."
Leading the offensive effort for Vassar was Parson (three goals, one assist), Sam Houston-Read (two goals, two assists), Chris Billups (two goals, one assist) and James Thomas (one goal, one assist). Drew Adams, Brandon DeStasio, Pat Gibbons and Dekker Stebel all tallied a goal as well.
Defensively, Eric Fishman went 12-of-19 with face-offs, picking up a team-high six ground balls in the process. Vassar won the face-off battle, 13-7, and the ground ball battle, 30-18. DeStasio picked up five ground balls, while Brandon Klein and Liam Moriarty each grabbed two.
"We set goals, and we met them," Graham said. "We got our clears, we reduced our turnovers, we won the ground ball battle. All those small things that we talk about were really important today."
The Brewers also won 18 of 19 clear attempts and limited their turnovers to just 10.
"As the coaches reiterate throughout the year," Page said, "if we beat them with the little things, those will combine into a win."
Goalkeepers Brandon Crecco and Matt Boyd split time in net, with Crecco earning the win with five saves in the first half. Troy Ludtka took the loss with 12 saves in 60 minutes, as the Brewers outshot the Raptors, 41-18.
Emmet O'Connell scored two goals for Bard, while Ryan Colin and John Palermo each tallied one.
Vassar got off to a hot start, scoring the first five goals. Parson struck first before DeStasio, Thomas, Billups and Gibbons found the back of the net for a balanced attack.
"Getting off to a fast start was probably the key to the game," Morrow said. "I think we did that and didn't really look back."
With 12 seconds to go in the first quarter, Bard got on the board to get within 5-1. The Raptors scored two of the next three, with Parson scoring in the middle, before the Brewers scored four unanswered. Houston-Read potted two in that span, while Parson notched his 39th goal on the season and Billups, his 16th.
Parson, who eclipsed his own program record for most goals in a season in his last outing, continues to stretch the record.
"Just being a part of this team and growing with the program has been an awesome experience," he said.
Bard scored once more in the third quarter before Stebel and Adams netted the only goals of the final frame.
Vassar men's lacrosse concludes its regular season at Union on Saturday, April 30 at noon.
—VASSAR—
