No. 7 men's lacrosse shuts down Hamilton in 11-3 road win

Max Breschi scored a career-high four goals to help Bates win 11-3 at Hamilton on April 2, 2016. (File photo by Josh Kuckens/Bates College)

CLINTON, N.Y. -- Bates held Hamilton without a goal for nearly 41 minutes and the No. 7 nationally ranked Bobcats posted an 11-3 NESCAC win Saturday at Hamilton's Steuben Field.

Bates (8-1, 4-1 NESCAC) picked up its fourth straight win and allowed a season-low three goals. The lone blemish on the Bobcats' season is a 14-9 loss at No. 4 Amherst on March 12.

The Continentals (3-5, 1-4) played a ranked opponent for the fourth time in their last five games.

For Bates, sophomore Max Breschi (Carlisle, Mass.) scored a game- and career-high four goals and senior Jack Allard (Ridgewood, N.J.) contributed three more to go with an assist. Senior Charlie Hildebrand (Berwyn, Pa.) chipped in one goal and two assists, and juniors Jake Walsh (Baltimore, Md.) and Andrew Melvin (Medfield, Mass.) had one goal and one helper apiece.

Junior Fred Ulbrick (Fairfield, Conn.) paced the Bobcats defense with three caused turnovers and
four ground balls, and first-year Mitchell Drake (Annapolis, Md.) made seven stops in his first career start in goal. Senior Ken O'Friel (Scarsdale, N.Y.) won four faceoffs and collected four ground balls.

Hamilton's Sam Sweet scored a goal and added an assist. Sweet leads the Continentals with 18 goals and 11 assists. Clay McCollum notched his 12th goal and J.D. Brachman tallied his 14th this year.

Eric Zurmuehle won 11 of 17 faceoffs and scooped up eight ground balls for Hamilton. Zurmuehle entered the day ninth in Division III in faceoff percentage at nearly 70 percent. John Schisler finished with 15 saves, including seven in the third period.

Bates trailed 2-1 after one quarter but the Bobcats started to assert themselves in the second. Junior Kyle Weber (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) tied the score on his 12th goal with 11:55 left and Breschi put Bates in the lead for good with 8:10 remaining.

Walsh scored his first goal of the season, unassisted, with 4:03 to go and Breschi made it 5-2 on a man-up goal with 45 seconds left. The Bobcats were 4-for-6 on extra-man opportunities.

Bates scored three times in the last 2:19 of the third quarter and led 8-2 after 45 minutes. Allard had two of the three goals, including one with 2.3 seconds remaining.

Allard gave the Bobcats a 9-2 cushion on his third straight goal with 11:01 to go in the fourth quarter. Breschi capped the nine-goal run on his third of the day 75 seconds later.

Sweet ended Hamilton's drought with 7:07 left when he fired a shot into the back of the net from the left side.

In the first quarter, Brachman put the Continentals up 1-0 a little less than two minutes into the contest. Hildebrand tied the score with a man-up goal midway through the quarter and Sweet found McCollum for a 2-1 Hamilton advantage with 2:37 remaining.

Bates returns home to face Bowdoin for a NESCAC contest on Wednesday at 7pm.