With the conference and national tournaments around the corner, the Oregon men’s club lacrosse team is building momentum at the most important part of the regular season.
The No. 15 Ducks (7-6, 2-0 Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League) moved above the .500 mark for the first time this year and extended their winning streak to four after a pair of crucial home victories last weekend.
Oregon topped No. 16 Simon Fraser in a 22-14 high-scoring affair Friday night and staged a fourth-quarter rally to edge past No. 7 Cal Poly in a 7-6 defensive battle Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a blast,” junior midfielder Spencer Robertson said. “It’s good to be clicking at the right time.”
Oregon 22, Simon Fraser 14
Robertson and junior attacker Matt Johnson each had four goals and an assist, leading the Ducks to overcome a halftime deficit against Simon Fraser (5-6, 2-1 PNCLL) in front of a rowdy home crowd at the Nex-Turf Field on campus.
Despite entering halftime down 8-6, the Ducks’ offense remained confident in its game plan.
“We just knew we had to keep up the energy,” senior midfielder Kevin Clark said. “We just knew we had to keep possession of the ball, play hard, run up and down the midfield.”
The strategy paid off as the Ducks outscored the Clan 16-6 in the second half. Oregon opened the half with three quick scores to reclaim the lead early in the third quarter.
The Ducks grabbed the lead for good when senior attacker Justin Eckenroad punched in a goal with 6:02 left in the third quarter, giving Oregon an 11-10 advantage over an undermanned Simon Fraser squad that showed signs of fatigue late.
“They always kind of have a small bench, and that’s our advantage,” head coach Joe Kerwin said. “We just try to run them and push the ball in transition and make it an up-and-down type of game.”
Before the Oregon offense thrived, both teams found themselves in a back-and-forth contest. Simon Fraser closed the first half with four unanswered scores to secure its two-goal lead into intermission.
“They just played their game,” senior goalie Nick Johnston said. “They’re in tight and move the ball really fast.”
As bitter conference foes, both sides played with a ferocious level of physicality, leading to a total of 12 penalties.
“They’re our biggest rivals in the league, so we always like to be physical,” Clark said. “We don’t really like them very much, so we like to come out and take it to them.”
Oregon 7, Cal Poly 6
Sunday’s game against Cal Poly (10-4, 3-0 Western Collegiate Lacrosse League) was far from the shootout the Ducks had two days before.
“Our strength is in our defense, so I would say it’s to our benefit to have a defensive battle like this,” Robertson said. “And in the end we were able to pull it out.”
Trailing 4-2 heading into the final quarter, the Ducks finally found a rhythm on offense. Starting with Robertson’s third goal of the game, Oregon rallied with four unanswered goals.
Eckenroad’s man-up goal from point-blank range put Oregon in front 5-4, and senior defenseman Mike Gerrard’s score from 15 feet out less than a minute later gave the Ducks what proved to be an insurmountable two-goal lead.
“We try to work on those situations quite a bit,” Kerwin said about playing in closely contested fourth quarters. “It’s definitely something we’re mindful of and try to practice quite a bit.”
Robertson finished with an assist in addition to his three goals, while Clark contributed a goal and an assist and Johnston made 15 saves.
“It was nice for us to win back-to-back in a weekend,” Kerwin said. “Especially doing it the way we did it (on Sunday) … fourth quarters haven’t been kind to us.”
Looking ahead
The Ducks head up to Portland for their last game of the regular season on Saturday to face Oregon State (3-6, 0-1 PNCLL).
The Ducks are trying to finish their season strong with postseason play commencing next month.
Oregon defeated Simon Fraser in last year’s conference tournament championship. The Ducks expect the Clan to once again be the toughest competition in their way of repeating. Winning the PNCLL tournament would give Oregon an automatic bid to the national tournament.
Relying on earning an at-large invitation into the 16-team national field is always risky, but this weekend’s results have made Kerwin a little more comfortable for now.
“This definitely puts us in a better position to get an at-large bid,” Kerwin said. “This was a big weekend.”
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