Three days removed from picking up its first win at Louisville in school history, Boston College lacrosse reached a new milestone. On Tuesday afternoon, the Eagles rallied from a one-goal, halftime deficit, behind Sam Apuzzo’s second-half hat trick, and pulled away from Yale for a 13-9 victory—BC’s program record-breaking 11th-straight win.
Yale (6-3, 2-0 Ivy League) kicked off the game at Reese Stadium with two quick shots on goal, but Eagle goalkeeper Lauren Daly easily stopped those two attempts. Just five minutes into the game and on Yale’s third shot attempt, Izzy Nixon recorded her 13th goal of the season, drawing first blood. No. 2 BC (11-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) couldn’t grab control of the draw following Nixon’s goal, but BC defender Christina Walsh forced a quick turnover, leading to an Apuzzo shot—unfortunately for the Eagles, the ball hit the post.
A Nixon turnover led to a ground ball pickup by Kaileen Hart. The senior got a shot off, playing a man down, and found the back of the net, recording her 21st goal of the season, tying the game.
The teams traded possessions, with just a handful of turnovers on both sides of the field. With 13 minutes left to go in the first half, Carly Bell picked up a yellow card and another foul was then called on Apuzzo, giving Yale the one-man advantage. The Bulldogs didn’t miss out on their opportunity, scoring with just under eleven minutes left to play in the half on a Nixon goal—her second of the day—assisted by Sam Higgins.
BC knew that it had to answer, and it did so without hesitation. After the Nixon goal, Dempsey Arsenault took control of the draw and brought it downfield to score her 31stt goal of the season, equalizing the game at two a piece.
But, it didn’t take long for the Eagles to pick up another foul—Bell was the culprit for the second time. Eight seconds later, Yale’s Vanessa Vu gained control of the ball and fired a shot on net, less than 30 seconds after the Eagles tied it up, giving the Bulldogs the 3-2 advantage with less than 10 minutes to play in the first half.
A foul on Vu led to a Hart free-position attempt, but Yale goalie Sydney Marks was there for the save. Soon, thanks to the toughness of Madeleine Gramigna, BC’s Taylor Walker coughed up the ball, allowing Yale to temporarily maintain possession.
While the pattern of the game would have suggested that the Eagles score the next goal and knot it all up, the Bulldogs made things interesting and put one in to the back of the net after a BC shot clock violation. Emily Granger recorded her 14th goal of the season with just 5 minutes left in the first half, extending Yale’s lead to 4-2.
Less than a minute later, senior Tess Chandler recorded her 21st goal of the season after Elizabeth Miller gained control of the draw. The half ended with the Bulldogs on top of the Eagles by one.
The second half began with a pair of yellow cards administered to both Nixon and Walker. Bell was called for a foul right after the Walker yellow card, and Yale’s Gramigna scored off a free-position shot while BC was playing a man down, giving Yale the 5-3 advantage.
Two minutes later, Walker redeemed herself, putting one past Marks. Just a minute after that,, Yale came right back down the field with another Gramigna goal. That’s when Apuzzo—who was held scoreless in the first half for the second game in a row—came into her own, scooping up the draw and logging her 45th goal of the season.
The Eagles really got into a rhythm and, just two minutes later, fired down the field and scored again after a foul was called on Yale’s Cooper Hall, tying the game at six. Then, Nixon picked up a ground ball and passed it to Higgins, who dished it out to Barrett Carlson for a goal, giving Yale the lead again.
With so many lead changes and ties going back and forth, the second half was quickly turning into a high-scoring affair. Three successive Apuzzo goals gave the Eagles a two-goal lead, but it didn’t last long. The Bulldogs came right back and recorded two goals in just one minute, tying the game back up, 9-9.
All of a sudden, the teams hit a dry spell—neither side scored over the course of the ensuing five minutes. Eventually, the Eagles were the first to break the silence, giving themselves a 10-9 lead, thanks to another goal from Arsenault while playing a man up. Arsenault didn’t stop there, though. Less than a minute later she received a pass from Apuzzo and flung a shot into the back of the cage, tying the Eagles’ largest lead of the game. BC took a timeout to regroup after the goal with 6:34 left to go.
Exactly a minute after the timeout, Hart scored, extending the Eagles’ lead to three. Yale cleared the ball after Marks finally stopped Apuzzo, and the Bulldogs proceeded to use a timeout to come up with a game plan with just 2:45 left on the clock.
Yale held onto the possession until Emily Granger’s shot hit the post and was picked up by the Eagles. A quick foul was called on Higgins, and BC was given a free-position attempt with 44 seconds remaining in regulation. The Eagles were able to capitalize on the attempt and extended their lead to four with a Walker goal, effectively sealing the game.
When all was said and done, BC dominated the statsheet, tallying 14 more shots than Yale, despite the Eagles’ poor first-half performance. BC has blown through its non-conference slate and finds itself in the same position that it was when it started: undefeated. With only one more non-conference game remaining, the Eagles’ focus now shifts toward the ACC, needing two more wins to clinch its first winning league record in three years.
Featured Image by Julia Hopkins / Heights Senior Staff
