BOSTON - Senior James Burr and sophomore Chris Gray each scored six goals to lead the No. 18/16 Boston University men's lacrosse team to a 15-11 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field.

BU (10-4, 5-2 PL) clinched a spot in the Patriot League Tournament with the win, marking the third straight year the Terriers have earned a postseason berth. The Terriers can finish no lower than third and will have a chance to earn a bye or even win the regular-season title with a win next week and losses by either Lehigh or Loyola.

The Terriers recognized its 10 seniors prior to Saturday's game. Burr, Gabe Anderson, Quintin Germain, Grant Gregory, Brendan Homire, Eamon Hunter, Michael Laviano, Drew Lukacs, Sean McGovern and Thomas Schmidt have been outstanding leaders both on and off the field and are a major reason why BU returned to a third consecutive conference tournament.

In addition to his career-best six goals, Gray added four assists to match his career high with 10 points. Gray also recorded 10 points at Harvard on March 20, 2018. The sensational sophomore earned Turnpike Trophy MVP honors for his performance against Holy Cross (6-6, 3-4 PL) Burr matched his career high of six goals and also had an assist for a seven-point afternoon. The duo is now the highest scoring pair of men's lacrosse players in the country, having combined for 154 points.

Freshman Timmy Ley notched a goal and two assists and was one of three Terriers with two assists on Saturday. Homire and freshman Jake Cates also added two helpers. Freshman Matt Hilburn found the back of the net, as did junior Chase Levesque. Levesque's biggest contributions came at the defensive end, however, as he gathered seven ground balls and caused four turnovers. 

Junior Joe McSorley was magnificent in the cage for BU, making 20 saves in addition to collecting two ground balls and one caused turnover. McSorley stopped 10 shots in each half, with many of the saves coming from point-blank range.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Holy Cross opened the scoring at 13:46 of the first quarter, but the Terriers responded with three straight goals, two of which came from Burr, to grab a 3-1 lead at 5:35.
• The Crusaders tied the game at 3-3 with 2:43 to play in the frame, but Gray notched two consecutive goals to give BU a 5-3 lead after 15 minutes.
• It took over four minutes for either team to find the back of the net in the second stanza, with Ley dunking a Gray pass at 10:39 to make it 6-3.
• Justin Lynskey cut the deficit to two at 6:18, but Burr restored the Terriers' three-goal edge at 4:12, which is where the score remained at halftime.
• Gray tallied two straight goals to begin the third quarter, establishing a 9-4 lead.
• Holy Cross collected two of the next three goals to make it a 10-6 Terrier lead, but Gray and Levesque both scored in a span of 18 seconds to extend the lead to 12-6.
• The score was 12-7 entering the fourth quarter, but Burr tallied a man-down goal just 39 seconds into the period to regain a six-goal cushion.
• The Crusaders went on a 4-0 run to make it a two-goal game with 6:32 remaining in regulation, but McSorley and the BU defense held strong and staved off a late charge by the Crusaders.
• Gray and Burr capped the scoring with a pair of empty-net markers in the final minute.

GAME NOTES

• Burr extended his goal scoring streak to 31 games.
• He has notched 46 goals and added 14 assists for 60 points this season.
• Gray has recorded at least five points in each of the last 13 games.
• He leads the NCAA with 94 points thanks to 41 goals and 53 assists.
• The starting attack trio of Burr, Gray and Ley have combined for 27 of the Terriers' last 33 goals.
• BU was 2-for-5 on its EMOs.
• Sophomore Sean Christman went 10-of-27 at the faceoff X and secured seven ground balls.

NEXT UP: NAVY

• The Terriers will close out the regular season at Navy on Friday, April 26.
• Game time is set for 4 p.m.