Men's Lacrosse (7-7, 6-1) Advances to Second Straight Pilgrim League Title Game

The Wheaton College men's lacrosse team advanced to its second straight Pilgrim League Tournament championship game last week, coming up shy of earning its initial league crown and NCAA Tournament bid. The second-seeded Lyons downed visiting number-three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 14-7 in a semifinal on Wednesday before suffering a 12-7 setback at top seed Springfield College, the eight-time league champ. Wheaton, which matched a 13-year-old school record by extending its winning streak to seven games prior to falling in the title contest, will be the second seed in this week's seven-team Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament. The Lyons host number-seven Becker College on Wednesday.

The Blue and White used a 6-0 run in the third quarter to blow open a one-goal game against MIT. Sophomore Chris Landers (Manchester, MA/Proctor Academy) tallied five goals, freshman Billy McNamara (Mansfield, MA/Northfield Mount Hermon School) had a hat trick and one assist, and sophomore Ben Cederberg (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) turned in a goal and four helpers. Junior Warren Garceau (Guilford, CT/Canterbury School) scored twice and went 11-for-15 on face-offs, classmate Tim Horan (Cheshire, CT/Cheshire) collected a goal and two assists, while junior Drew Schaffer (New Haven, CT/Loomis Chaffee School) had two assists. Senior Jeff Gomer (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) was 7-for-9 on face-offs, and junior Schuyler Horn (New Hartford, CT/Kingswood-Oxford School) made 15 saves. Wheaton, which has the nation's eighth-best man-up offense, went 3-for-5 with the man advantage, and the 14 goals were the most it had scored in a Pilgrim tournament contest.

At Springfield, sophomore Duncan Smith (Centerport, NY/Harborfields) put the Lyons on top 4:13 into the game, and the teams stood tied at one early in the second quarter before a 4-0 Pride run put the hosts on top for good. A 4-1 Wheaton run made it 10-6 early in the fourth, but Springfield scored two of the final three tallies. Smith finished with a hat trick, Cederberg tallied twice, and Schaffer notched a goal and a helper. Horn made 19 saves, while the Lyons were 2-for-3 in man-up situations. Wheaton held Springfield to its smallest margin of victory against Pilgrim teams. After falling by a 14-3 count during the regular season in Wheaton's initial league game under first-year head coach Brian Endicott, the Lyons limited an attack that had produced at least 22 goals in four of its last five league games, including netting 24 in the semifinals against Babson College.

Horn is tied for fifth in program history in single-season wins (7), Gomer is sixth in ground balls (71) and seventh in face-off victories (90), while Cederberg is seventh in assists (22) with the most by a Lyon in seven years. Gomer is first in school annals in career ground balls (275), second in face-off wins (402) and tied for third in games (59). Senior Marco Barbone (Newton, MA/Newton North) is first in games (62), having eclipsed Richie Rasamny's '08 record during the Pilgrim League Tournament final, and is sixth in ground balls (120). Horn is fourth in saves (366) and wins (15), Garceau is fifth in face-off wins (168), and Schaffer is eighth in assists (44).