MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – On a day where the Cardinal offense was firing on all cylinders, the fourth-seeded Wesleyan men's lacrosse team outscored the fifth-seed Middlebury 7-2 in the fourth quarter to earn a 17-9 NESCAC Quarterfinal victory over the Panthers from Jackson Field on Saturday afternoon. Wesleyan (12-4) advances to their 13^th NESCAC Semifinal appearance while the Panthers (8-8) see their season come to an end.
 
Scoring 17 times on Saturday, Wesleyan tied a program record for the highest-scoring NESCAC Tournament game, matching a 17-12 win over Tufts in the 2017 NESCAC Semifinal round. Matt Gill '23 was heavily-involved throughout, totaling eight points on four goals and four assists to match Carter Hawthorne's '19 eight-point total from that win over the Jumbos for the most points ever scored by a Cardinal in a NESCAC Tournament game. One more single-game NESCAC Tournament record was matched on the day as Justin Hazard '23 scored five times, matching the team record for most goals.
 
The Cardinals' historic postseason victory saw Wesleyan chip away at the Panthers throughout, never trailing at any point in the game but never holding more than a three-goal lead until late in the third quarter. With the score sitting 6-4 at the half and 11-8 early the fourth, Wesleyan outscored the Panthers 7-2 in the final stanza including a 4-0 run to end the game.
 
Playing in front of hundreds on a gorgeous early spring afternoon on the grass at Jackson Field, Wesleyan opened the game with a 4-1 lead after one. Sam Jean '23 netted a goal, sandwiched in between two Hazard strikes, as the Cardinals scored three unanswered goals to end the frame. Goalkeeper Colin Hanley '22, who returned to the starting lineup from injury, made five crucial saves with just one goal allowed in the first quarter.
 
Middlebury responded with a three-goal second quarter, compared to just two for Wesleyan, as the two sides traded goals back-and-forth with neither team scoring two straight in the quarter. Tyler Forbes scored with 2:58 left to cap the scoring and make it 6-4 at the halftime break.
 
Combined with the end of the first half, neither side scored for more than seven full minutes before Hazard put an end to the drought with his third of the day to open the scoring in the third quarter. That also kick started a 4-1 Wesleyan run as Gill scored off a CK Giancola '24 feed before DJ Dixon '24 scored and Gill broke through again as Wesleyan opened a 10-5 lead, their biggest of the game at that point with 2:15 left in the third.
 
The Panthers, however, would answer back with two late third quarter goals from Luke Simpson and Forbes (man-down goal), to make it 10-7 heading into the fourth.
 
With the game still up in the air, Wesleyan played to a dominating fourth quarter as the Cardinals committed just one turnover on their way to a seven-goal outburst including four unanswered over the final 6:11 to finish strong and end with a postseason victory.
 
Gill posted four goals and four assists as he now shares the team-lead in points (77) on the season with Hazard. The junior attacks combined for 15 points as Hazard came through with five goals and two assists for seven points, upping his season total to 77 points including 52 goals. Hazard joins an elite group of Cardinals, as he becomes just the fourth player in program history to record a 50-goal season, as the feat has only been accomplished now seven times by four different Cardinals.
 
Jake Sexton '22 added five points (three goals, two assists) as he now has 73 points, giving Wesleyan three players with 70+ points this season, marking just the second time in program history (2018 was the first) that the Cardinals have accomplished the feat.
 
Giancola added four points (one goal, three assists) while Jean added three (one goal, two assists). Hanley was outstanding in his return to the field, posting 14 saves in his first career playoff game. Kevin Talbot '24 also battled injury to excel in the faceoff X, finishing 8-for-12 in this one.
 
Wesleyan now turns their attention to the NESCAC Semifinal round and a trip to face top-seeded Tufts next Saturday. The two sides met in the regular season on Saturday, April 16 in Medford and the Jumbos came out on top 17-14 in a game Wesleyan led 10-6 at the half. This will be the eighth time these two sides have met in the NESCAC Tournament, with Wesleyan owning a 4-3 all-time record in those contests.