LEWISTON, Maine – After being outscored 11-3 in the first half of play, the Keene State College men's lacrosse team found themselves in too deep of a hole to come back against Bates College as they ultimately fell 16-7 to the Bobcats on Tuesday night.

Records

• Keene State: 1-4
• Bates: 5-0

How it Happened


KSC got on the board first after Jack Ansart caused a turnover on a Bates clear, he scored the first goal of the game to put KSC up 1-0. The Owls' goalkeeper Dylan Florian saved the first shot from the Bobcats, but Denzel Evans tied the game up for BC shortly after, 4:30 into the contest. Florian made another two saves in goal for the Owls, but following the pair of saves, Bates scored two more goals, 32 seconds a part, to jump to a 3-1 lead with 6:47 left in the first. The rest of the opening quarter, BC scored two more goals to take a 5-1 lead heading into the second quarter.
 
BC kept on the attack to open the second quarter as they scored their sixth goal in a row 2:24 into the quarter. After Florian made his second save of the quarter, Rex Maccarini tallied his 12th goal of the season to cut the Bobcats lead to four. Bates increased their lead to six shortly after by scoring a pair of goals 55 seconds apart with 7:46 remaining in the opening half. 1:16 later KSC tried to start to gain momentum after Dylan Seymour assisted Ansart for his second goal of the game, but Bates ended the rest of the opening half by scoring three more goals, despite two more saves from Florian.
 
Florian saved three more shots to open the second half, but Bates tallied another pair of goals to open the scoring in the half, to make it five straight goals over 11:13 of action. After not scoring since there was 6:30 remaining in the second quarter, Maccarini assisted Seymour on a man-up goal with 6:21 remaining in the third quarter to end the 15-minute scoring drought for the Owls. Both teams traded goals over the next 2:21 with Liam Rule scoring for BC and Tim Souza tallying his second goal of the season for the Owls. The rest of the quarter, BC tallied two more goals as they took a 6-5 lead into the final quarter.
 
KSC started with the ball to start the final 15 minutes of action due to a penalty against the Bobcats and they immediately capitalized as Maccarini assisted Cole Ricardi on the Owls sixth goal of the contest. Following a pair of saves from each goalkeeper, KSC tacked on what wound up being their final goal on the day with Ansart assisting than Palma on his first career collegiate goal with 9:30 remaining. The rest of the way, Florian saved his 16th and 17th shots of the day for KSC, while the Owls killed off two 30 second penalties and BC held on for the 16-7 win on the day.
 
Inside the Crease

• With the loss, KSC falls to 3-13 in the all-time series between the two teams, having lost the 12 most recent matchups.
• Florian made 17 saves in his 55:04 in net, bringing his season total to 55 saves across 247:14 in goal for the Owls.
• Bates' starting goalkeeper Andrew Toland made five saves and allowed five goals in his 41:25 in goal, while Drew Nyhus entered the crease for the Bobcats for 15:20 and saves two of his four shots that he saved for BC. Ryan Valentine (4:56 for the Owls) and Luke Heafey (3:15 for BC) did not see a shot in net in the game.
• Gray Doyle tallied seven assists on the day for BC for a game-high seven points, with Riley McClure closely behind with six points from each three goals and assists for the Bobcats.
• Maccarini and Ansart both recorded three points apiece with Maccarini scoring a goal with two assists and Ansart scoring a pair of goals with an assist.
• The Owls only recorded four faceoff wins on the day, as they went 4-for-26 (15.4%) for the second time this season (Western New England 2/19/25). On the season, the Owls have gone 39-for-139 (28.1%) on faceoffs.

 
Up Next


Keene State's next game is over spring break in Davenport, Florida as they will play Otterbein University on Saturday, March 15, at 1:00 PM.
Bates returns to conference play for their next matchup as they take on No. 16 Middlebury College on Friday, March 15, at 1:00 PM.