LEWISTON, Maine — No. 15 Bates College wasted little time making a statement in its first NCAA Division III Championship Tournament appearance since 2017. The Bobcats scored the first six goals of the night and never looked back Friday at Garcelon Field, rolling past SUNY Cortland, 17-9, in second-round action.
Bates advances to the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time since that 2017 campaign and will face undefeated Hope College (19-0) on Saturday (7:00 p.m.) after the Flying Dutchmen defeated No. 17 Ithaca, 14-11, in the nightcap.
Bates placed nine different players in the scoring column and piled up 56 shots while controlling possession throughout much of the contest.
Connor Hartman led the offensive outburst with four goals, while
Jack Goldbach totaled six points behind two goals and four assists.
Riley McClure and
Xander Frey each added hat tricks for the Bobcats.
The Bobcats stormed out of the gates immediately.
Hartman opened the scoring just 45 seconds into the contest off a feed from Goldbach before adding another 1:07 after for a 2-0 advantage. Goldbach and McClure followed with unassisted tallies, and Charles Lowe pushed the lead to 5-0 at the 9:56 mark of the opening quarter.
Charlie Hepp extended the run to six straight goals with 6:50 remaining in the first, helping Bates build a commanding 7-2 edge after one quarter.
Cortland briefly trimmed the deficit to 7-3 early in the second quarter, but Bates answered every push.
Goldbach scored at the 12:11 mark before
Henry McCann restored a five-goal cushion later in the frame off another assist from Goldbach. After the Red Dragons (15-6) cut the margin to 9-5 on a man-up goal, Bates closed the half with four of the final five scores.
Gray Doyle started a stretch of four-straight tallies for the Bobcats with 6:04 left before McClure, Hartman, and McClure again all found the back of the net over the final four minutes of the half, sending Bates into the break with a dominant 13-5 lead.
The Bobcats continued to press in the third quarter.
Frey opened the period with his second goal of the day before Ryan Chung answered a Cortland tally just seven seconds later to keep momentum squarely with Bates. Hartman added his fourth goal with 3:49 remaining in the quarter, and Frey capped the scoring with four seconds left in the period to make it 17-7 entering the fourth.
Miles Schmidt helped Bates control possession at the face-off, winning 15-of-17 draws, while the Bobcats also finished with advantages in ground balls (45-32).
Andrew Toland earned the win in goal with four saves over 53:19 before Drew Nyhus stopped three shots in 6:41 of relief during the fourth quarter.
Stefan Swedlund (Randolph, N.J.) paced the Red Dragons with his five points (4 goals, 1 assist). Charlie Falowski (Redding, Conn.) grabbed nine saves in a complete-game performance fo Cortland.
