AMHERST — The second-ranked Amherst College men’s lacrosse team started their season 2-0 this past weekend with a pair of 16-8 victories over Hamilton College and Western New England University.
“I think scheduling two games in 48 hours is one thing that they rose to the challenge of,” coach Jon Thompson said. “This mimics the NCAA playoff structure … so getting off to a nice start in a back-to-back situation is more important to me than getting off to a 2-0 on a Saturday then Wednesday.”
Amherst got off to a quick start in Sunday’s matchup with Western New England having a couple of quick goals from senior captain Colin Minicus and senior Matt Solberg.
“Moving the ball on offense, we have guys who can score anywhere on the field,” Solberg said. “Playing with these guys for four years it’s been really helpful being able to build chemistry.”
Added Minicus, “We move the ball well together, me, Solberg, (Jon) Coffey, Jackson (Herrick), we have all been working together on offense for the past four years so we are not looking at it as a high level, we have always just kind of played like this.”
Western New England led 6-5 at the half, but the Mammoths’ defense stifled the Golden Bears in the second half.
“I think are guys started flying around a little bit more,” Thompson said. “We went to zone defense in the second half so I think that certainly played a role but … as a defense we started double teaming the ball and picked up a lot of tough ground balls on defense and that got us going.”
Coffey helped Amherst pull away with four goals, including three in the second half.
“We learned a lot, we were trying to figure out who we were still,” Thompson said regarding how his team fought through some adversity in the second quarter. “What have we done as coaches? We recruited some really good players.”
Amherst will play at No. 6 Tufts next Saturday.