AMHERST, Mass. -- In order to extend their win streak to seven games, the Bates men's lacrosse team had little margin for error in Saturday's NESCAC Championship semifinal game at top-seeded Amherst. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, it was the No. 5 nationally ranked and host Jeffs who got a few more breaks, and they prevailed on a hot, sunny day at Pratt Field, 10-8, to advance to Sunday's championship.

Bates had a slight 39-37 advantage in shot attempts in the game, which pitted the top two defenses in the conference. Junior goalie Joe Faria (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) made 20 saves, but Amherst sophomore keeper Cody Tranbarger was equally tough, with 17 saves.

"I love the way we fought and scrapped, and we believed we were going to win the game the whole time," said head coach Peter Lasagna, who this week shared NESCAC Coach of the Year honors with his Amherst counterpart, Jon Thompson. "Especially when we cut it down to one. We just thought Sam was going to keep winning us faceoffs, we're getting possessions and we're getting great shots. We just didn't finish them."

Junior Jack Allard (Ridgewood, N.J.) scored three goals for Bates; senior Conor Henrie (Lexington, Mass.) added two scores, and sophomore Kyle Weber (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) contributed a goal and an assist. Junior Charlie Hildebrand (Berwyn, Pa.) and sophomore Charlie Fay (Falmouth, Maine) scored one goal apiece. The Bobcats dominated faceoffs, winning 17 of 22 overall, with sophomore Sam Francis (Newburyport, Mass.) going 14-for-17 and senior Tucker White (Burlington, Vt.) winning 3-of-5.

Chris Albanese scored four times for the Jeffs. Kane Haffey added two goals and an assist, and Dylan Park scored twice. NESCAC Player of the Year Quinn Moroney was held to one assist.

Amherst (16-1) plays the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between Tufts and Middlebury. The winner of that game gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Bates maintains hope for an at-large berth when the 32-team field is announced Sunday on ncaa.com. (The show begins at 9pm Eastern)

"I don't think it is (the end of the season)," said Lasagna. "I saw the teams that we're sort of vying with for two spots, and no one else has wins over the kind of teams that we beat, Tufts and Middlebury. Plus we just got another strength of schedule game playing Amherst again, so that helps us regionally. So I think we're going to get to play, I really do."

Amherst forced Bates play catchup for most of the first half, and the trend continued into the second half. The Jeffs killed two penalties by forcing early Bates turnovers, taking away the Bobcats' potent man-up offense, and Tranbarger made eight saves in the half. Amherst was also able to maintain possession several times by collecting ground balls off of Faria saves or shots hit off the pipes. 

Amherst compounded Bates' frustration by scoring on both of its extra-man opportunities, which were both only 30 seconds in duration.

"I thought the defense really locked down in the second half, got stops, got clears and gave us a chance to win the game," said Lasagna. "I'd like to have probably eight or 10 shots back that I think we normally bury. And they scored a couple extra-man goals that we had defended, the shot goes off somebody's head, somebody picks it up and throws it in. That stuff happens in this game."

Henrie scored the opening goal of the second half to close the gap to 7-6, but Albanese and Haffey answered with two goals within the next two minutes for a 9-6 advantage. With 4:51 left, Bates scored its lone man-up goal of the game, with Weber finding Allard to make it 9-7.

Neither team found the back of the net for a span of nearly 15 minutes of game time. But with 5:13 to go in the fourth quarter, Weber streaked down the left alley, stopped on a dime to lose his defender, and shot into the upper far corner to close the gap to 9-8.

Thirty-three seconds later, however, Allard was flagged for offsides, giving Amherst an extra man for 30 seconds. And with three seconds remaining in the penalty, Haffey combined with Albanese for the final goal of the game and a 10-8 Amherst lead. Bates got two shots off in the final four minutes, one sailing high and the final one, by sophomore Andrew Melvin (Medfield, Mass.), stopped at point-blank range by Tranbarger.

"I told the guys that we haven't been in this position before, so now we have experience that we haven't had before. I think a couple of those shots we had that went a little wide or a little high, I think the next time we have the opportunity to play in this kind of game, we finish those shots," said Lasagna. "we've been shooting the ball so well for a month and a half."