Photo by Charlie Quigg '09 Senior Joaquin Walker notched a trio of goals on Wednesday evening.

Jeffs Upended at Springfield, 15-7

FROM A SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE RELEASE

April 20, 2006

SPRINGFIELD, MA – The Amherst College men’s lacrosse team dropped a 15-7 non-conference tilt at local rival Springfield College on Thursday night, falling to 2-8 on the season. The host Pride did most of its damage in the second half, scoring 11 goals after the break to improve to 8-4 on the year.

The opening half was a well fought battle by both teams. Amherst senior Joaquin Walker (Denver, CO) struck first with an unassisted tally at the 3:57-mark, but Springfield’s Jake Jones responded just over two minutes later to leave the count deadlocked at 1-1 at the end of the first quarter. Junior quad-captain Derek Cherney (Chappaqua, NY) put the Jeffs in control with a pair of second-quarter scores, converting the first off a feed from sophomore Will Ferrer (Greenwich, CT) and firing home the second with the help of fellow quad-captain Kevin Boova (Summit, NJ). However, Jake Beebe notched two goals of his own and Greg Welch found the back of the net with just 42 ticks left in the period to carry Springfield to a 4-3 halftime edge.

It was all Pride after the break as Jones and Taylor Brown scored a pair of goals just 10 seconds apart to ignite Springfield’s second-half rally. Walker tallied two more goals down the stretch, while Ferrer and junior Chris Hoffman (New Canaan, CT) each scored once, but the Jeffs couldn’t keep pace.

Amherst rookie goalie Matt Pietroforte (Brooklyn, NY) finished with 13 saves, while senior Raul Altreche (Bronx, NY) surrendered just one goal in the final 8:24 and collected a pair of saves.

The Jeffs return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. in a NESCAC bout at Bowdoin College.

BOX SCORE