BOSTON – Behind freshman Mike Rooney's first collegiate hat trick and three goals from junior Jimmy Kohr, the Boston University men's lacrosse team remained undefeated on the year by holding off Brown, 8-7, on Tuesday afternoon at Nickerson Field.
 
BU never trailed in the contest and held off a late charge from the visitors as Brown scored three of the game's final four goals before missing wide on a shot attempt in the final second of the contest.
 
The Terriers overcame an 18-save performance from Brown netminder Connor Foley, who made 15 stops before halftime to keep it a close contest. On the other end, senior Will Barnes made eight saves for BU.
 
Senior Jimmy O'Connell had a goal, two assists and a game-high seven ground balls while freshman Timothy Shannehan had a pair of helpers. Junior Connor Kehm recorded a game-best four caused turnovers while senior Trey Brown tallied two caused turnovers and four ground balls. Freshman Madden Murphy won a career-best seven of the 12 faceoffs he took and recorded three ground balls. 
 
Freshman Ben Morris scored while senior Zach Travaglini and graduate student James Corcoran each had an assist for the Terriers, who improved to 3-0 on the season.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Terriers dominated play in the opening quarter but had just a 2-0 lead to show for it as Foley had nine saves in the frame.
• Kohr opened the scoring 1:25 into the contest off an assist from Jimmy O'Connell.
• Neither team scored for the next 12-plus minutes before the Terriers took advantage of their first man-up opportunity of the contest.
• Rooney notched his second man-up goal of the season off a feed from Shannehan with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
• Rooney created a 3-0 lead less than a minute of the second quarter with an unassisted tally.
• The Bears, however, got back into the game with two goals from Ben Scandone to make it a 3-2 affair at the half.
• Brown drew even with 11:19 left in the third when Foley scored from beyond midfield on BU's 10-man ride.
• BU went scoreless for over 19 minutes before taking the lead back at 4-3 with just under 10 minutes left in the third.
• Morris notched his second goal of the season before Rooney completed the hat trick 38 seconds later to make it 5-3.
• The Terriers reestablished a three-goal cushion with 4:09 remaining in the third when Shannehan found Kohr for his second of the afternoon.
• Nearly half of the game's goals were scored in the fourth quarter as Brown made it a contest down the stretch.
• The teams traded goal in the early stages of the fourth with the Bears getting a tally from Marcus Wertheim before O'Connell responded with 11:48 to play to make it a 7-4 lead.
• Brown twice made it a one-goal contest in the final nine minutes.
• Aidan McLane scored back-to-back goals at 11:03 and 8:29 to get the visitors within one at 7-6 before Kohr completed his hat trick with a man-up tally with 5:25 to play to give the Terriers an 8-6 lead.
• Jeremy Hopsicker scored for Brown with 25.3 seconds to play and teammate Dash Sachs claimed the ensuing faceoff to give the Bears a chance to tie it.
• A shot by Luke Dellicicchi bounced just wide of the net as the Terriers hung on for the victory.

GAME NOTES

• BU outshot Brown, 41-25, and had a 33-21 advantage in ground balls.
• The Bears won 11 of the game's 18 faceoffs.
• The Terriers went 18-for-23 on clears and forced Brown into nine failed clears (18-for-27).
• That tenacious ride resulted in BU recording 16 caused turnovers.
• BU did not commit any penalties and went 2-for-3 on man-up opportunities.

UP NEXT

• BU will close out a three-game homestand on Saturday (Feb. 22) when it hosts Air Force.
• Game time at Nickerson Field is set for noon.