MONTREAL – Zach Bye scored a hat trick and was one of eight Redbirds to score as McGill defeated visiting Trent University Excalibur 12-7 in a match of undefeated men’s lacrosse teams at Percival Molson Stadium Saturday.

The result ended a streak of five straight losses to Trent since McGill’s last win, a 5-3 decision in Peterborough, Ontario, on Oct. 26, 2019.

McGill held a slim 22-21 advantage in shots and Trent took five of the nine penalties called.

In a dream match for writers between goalkeepers with musical names, Joe Walshwhose claim to fame was that “life has been good” tore up Jackson Brownwho was better known for his “run on empty.” Walsh, a freshman transfer from the NCAA’s Colgate University, made three acrobatic saves early on to suppress the Excalibur and finished with 14 saves for the win. Brown, a fifth-year veteran, made 10 saves and took the loss.

Trent scored a worrying opening goal, but the Redbirds came back to lead 4-1 after the first quarter, 6-4 at halftime and 8-6 after three quarters. They then quadrupled their points lead over the visitors by winning the final quarter 4-1.

“It was a really big win for us, it’s the way we won that I was happy with,” said the third-year McGill bench boss Nicolas Soubrywho got his first win in six attempts against the Excalibur. “We had a more balanced attack with a lot of assists, where we had a good dodge (a one-on-one start), pulled a good slide (the defending player sends an extra player to stop the dodge) and passed the ball to the open man who had a good shot. It was a textbook example of attack today”

Bye, who ranks fourth among league leaders with a dozen goals in four games played, put his team up 4-1 late in the first quarter. He scored his second of the game with seven seconds left in the third quarter to give McGill an 8-6 lead, then completed the hat trick with a power-play marker to make it 12-6 in the fourth.

Teammate Joshua Jewel added a couple of goals, with singles off the posts of Sam MacDonald, Mark Symon, John Miraglia, Torsten Blodgett, Alex Erbstein And Preston Norris.

Jack MacAlpine responded with a hat-trick for Trent and Michael Andersen added a few. Singles went to Mason Tardiff and former McGill star Dylan Jameswho graduated last season after earning the League MVP award and headed to Trent to pursue his postgraduate studies.

These arch-rivals will meet one more time before the play-offs, on October 19 in Peterborough.

McGill, which improved to 4-0, is now tied with Trent (4-1) for the division lead in the six-team CUFLA East but has a game in hand. In a short, 10-game regular-season schedule, the Redbirds now control their destiny for a key first-place finish, giving the team significant home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, as travel is a major factor in this competition.

Trent plays at Bishop’s (1-3) on Sunday (September 22), while McGill goes to Bishop’s on Thursday (September 26).

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SOURCE
Count Zukerman
Sports spokesperson
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
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