Hilburn recorded five points; Burr, Dearth each had a hat trick
BOSTON – Sophomore Ryan Hilburn (West Chester, Pa.) matched a career high with five points, but the Boston University men’s lacrosse team suffered a 15-8 setback to No. 9/10 Duke on Sunday at Nickerson Field.
The Terriers concluded their 2016 season at 8-7, the program’s first winning season. The eight wins is a new program high and the seven losses are the fewest in the team’s three-year history.
BU honored its four seniors prior to the opening faceoff. Elliott Burr, Patrick Donnelly, Alex Paroda and Sam Tenney will graduate next weekend after three seasons with the program.
Hilburn had a career-best four assists to go along with his 11th goal of the season. He was one of four Terriers with at least two points. Freshman James Burr (Hamilton, Mass.) recorded a hat trick plus an assist to match a career high while junior Cal Dearth (Ridgefield, Conn.) notched a hat trick. Sophomore Jack Wilson (Manlius, N.Y.) tallied a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 26 games.
Burr’s hat trick secured a single-season record for goals by a Terrier. He notched goals in an outstanding freshman season. Dearth is also now four points shy of 100 for his career; he will become the first Terrier to reach the century mark in points.
Junior Christian Carson-Banister made 15 saves for the Terriers, including seven in the second quarter. Classmate Chad Bell and freshman Brendan Homire each had an assist while junior Henry Lee caused two turnovers and gathered four ground balls to lead BU on the defensive end.
Both Burr brothers featured prominently on Sunday, with Elliott winning eight faceoffs and collecting four ground balls in his final collegiate game. Junior Greg Wozniak had a strong game, collecting three ground balls and forcing two turnovers. Classmate Craig Zebrowski also had two caused turnovers in addition to a pair of ground balls.
It was an even first quarter on both the field and the scoreboard. Duke scored first but the Terriers had ample chances on offense. Despite four saves from Danny Fowler, BU finally got on the board when Burr collected his first goal of the day.
Dearth gave the Terriers a 2-1 lead just 58 seconds into the second quarter when he came on the field during an unsettled situation, took a pass from Wilson, and fired home his first goal of the game. However, Duke scored the next seven goals to take an 8-3 lead into halftime. The Blue Devils extended the lead to 12-3 after the break before Hilburn found Dearth for the junior’s second strike of the afternoon.
The Terriers outscored the Blue Devils, 4-3, in the final stanza. Burr tallied twice in that 15-minute span, with Wilson and Dearth also finding the back of the net. BU scored both of its man-up goals in the fourth quarter to cut into the Duke lead.
BU will return 47 letter winners from this year’s squad, including all three of its All-Patriot League selections in Dearth, Wozniak and junior Sam Talkow. Talkow, who did not play Sunday, is the league’s reigning Faceoff Specialist of the Year.