Bourque OT Goal Pushes No. 16 Men's Lacrosse to First PL Title Game, 13-12

Friday, May 6

Boston, MA

4 PM

Boston University

11-4

Lehigh (PL Semifinals)

8-7

Lehigh

Boston University

Photo by: Kyle Prudhomme

Bourque OT Goal Pushes No. 16 Men's Lacrosse to First PL Title Game, 13-12

May 6, 2022 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score Bourque/Polley Postgame

BOSTON - Sophomore Tommy Bourque scored off a bouncer with 1:14 left in overtime to push the top-seeded and 16th-ranked Boston University men's lacrosse team past Lehigh, 13-12, in the Patriot League semifinals on Friday at Nickerson Field. The Terriers will make their first-ever appearance in the league title game on Sunday.

BU (11-4), which overcame a 15-save performance by Lehigh goaltender James Spence, led by as many as five goals and had a 12-8 lead late in the third before going scoreless for 23:44 and allowing the Mountain Hawks to force overtime.

Senior Timmy Ley tallied six points on three goals and three assists while junior Louis Perfetto tallied two goals and three assists. Bourque's winner capped the second hat trick of his career.

Seven different Terriers found the back of the net, including senior Matt Hilburn, who scored twice, and sophomore James Corcoran. Junior Vince D'Alto (1g, 2a) and sophomore Christian Quadrino (1g, 1a) each had multi-point efforts while two d-middies - senior Jett Dziama and junior Donnie Howard - each contributed an assist.

Defensively, sophomore Dane DeGoler led the Terriers with a career-best six ground balls in addition to his one caused turnover. Junior Roy Meyer, the PL Defensive Player of the Year who entered the game averaging an NCAA-best 3.07 caused turnovers per game, matched his career high with five takeaways and also picked up five ground balls. Junior Patrick Morrison, making his first start at close defense since April 2, had two caused turnovers and two ground balls.

Senior Matt Garber, the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year, turned in an 11-save performance to earn the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The teams traded goals throughout the first half as there were six ties in the first 23 minutes of play.
Perfetto opened the scoring 1:10 into the contest before Lehigh's Cole Kirst scored his first of three first-half goals.
BU shared the wealth in the early stages with goals from Bourque, Corcoran, Hilburn and Quadrino.
Hilburn made it 6-6 with his second tally of the contest, starting a six-goal run for the Terriers that spanned both sides of halftime, resulting in an 11-6 advantage with 9:16 left in the third.
Lehigh ended BU's spurt with goals 41 seconds apart as part of a 6-1 run over the final 24 minutes of regulation.
BU had the final five shot attempts of the fourth quarter with three on goal but Spence and the Lehigh defense was able to send the game to overtime.
Lehigh won the opening draw of overtime but a caused turnover by Meyer allowed the Terriers to get the ball.
BU put forth three shots on the ensuing possession but none of them found the cage before the shot clock expired.
The Mountain Hawks tried to quickly beat the 10-man ride, but the Terriers won the race to the endline on a long-range shot to get another chance at a winner.
Bourque took a pass from Ley at the top of zone and came through with the biggest goal in program history, executing a split dodge before sending a bounce shot from his left side that found the back of the net and ended the game, causing an eruption on the BU sideline.

GAME NOTES

This is the Terriers' first trip to the Patriot League title game; they previously made the league semifinals in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Ley extended his goal scoring streak to an NCAA-best 37 games with his hat trick.
D'Alto pushed his point streak to 30 games and his goal scoring streak to 28 games.
Bourque stretched his point streak to four games with Friday's hat trick and has now recorded 12 goals and five assists for 17 points over the last eight games.
Eleven of the Terriers' 13 goals were assisted.
BU had a commanding 53-36 advantage in shot attempts.
The Terriers entered the game with the seventh-best ride in the country and forced seven failed clears on Friday while completing 26 of their 29 clear attempts.
BU, the national leader in caused turnovers per game, forced 14 of Lehigh's 22 turnovers.
Lehigh held advantages in both ground balls (41-35) and face-offs (18-10).
Justin Tiernan led the second-half comeback for Lehigh and had a game-best four goals while Tommy Schelling had a team-high five points (3g, 2a).
This was BU's third straight one-goal game, including a last-second 9-8 win at Lehigh on April 23.

UP NEXT

With a trip to the NCAA tournament on the line, the Terriers will face second-seeded Army West Point, which defeated third-seeded Loyola Maryland in Friday's second semifinal, in Sunday's Patriot League championship game.
Game time is set for noon at Nickerson Field.
The contest will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.