LEWISTON, Me. – Trailing 12-11 with under six minutes remaining, the No. 6 Wesleyan men's lacrosse team scored five unanswered goals in just over three minutes to claim a 16-12 come from behind win over Bates on Saturday. The Cardinals (5-1, 3-0 NESCAC) are winners of four straight while the Bobcats (6-2, 2-2 NESCAC) have lost two of their past three.
 
In a rapid-paced, back-and-forth game that featured five lead changes, Wesleyan had enough firepower to get past an upstart Bobcats team that started the year 5-0.
 
Leading 10-9 entering the fourth quarter, the Cardinals saw their lead disappear midway through the frame as Bates took a 12-11 lead. After winning the ensuing faceoff, Bates had two shots on the offensive possession that both missed the frame.
 
Taking the ball back, CK Giancola '24, G'25 tied the score off a feed from James Bailey '26. Tyler Campbell '25 won the next faceoff cleanly, picked up the ground ball and found Jack Raba '23, G'25 open in front for the go-ahead goal with 5:16 remaining.
 
The onslaught continued as Campbell won another faceoff and after Wesleyan called timeout, it was Bailey assisting Giancola for another goal with 4:10 left. Campbell's dominant run at X continued, as the senior won another which saw the Cardinals drain over a minute off the clock before Gavin Lechner '27 scored his fourth of the day on an assist from Ben Burns '26.
 
Now leading 15-12 with 2:56 left, it was Campbell again winning a faceoff, keeping the ball in the Bates defensive end. The Cardinals worked another minute off the clock before Giancola scored unassisted. Armed with a four-goal lead, the Cardinals needed one more save from Conor Selfridge '26, who delivered on a Jack Goldbach shot attempt with 1:44 remaining, sealing the road win for Wesleyan.
 
The epic ending capped a roller coaster of a game as Bates went up 3-0 in the first quarter before Wesleyan answered back with a 5-0 run, holing the Bobcats scoreless for over 15 straight minutes. The Bobcats responded with a 5-1 run of their own, taking an 8-6 lead early in the third quarter.
 
Wesleyan then used a 3-0 third quarter run to retake the lead before the two sides traded goals for the next 7+ minutes, up until the final sequence where the Cardinals won the game in the final minutes.
 
Giancola scored three of the final five goals for Wesleyan in the game-deciding 5-0 run, finishing the game with six goals and one assist for seven points. Bailey recorded a career-high five assists to go along with one goal for six points. Lechner recorded his first career four-goal game while Burns had one goal and three assists and Raba tallied two goals and one assist.
 
Campbell finished 14-for-27 on faceoffs but crucially delivered with four straight wins in the 5-0 fourth quarter scoring run. Jared Cohen '25 had five ground balls to lead the Cardinal defenders.
 
Selfridge tied his career-high with 19 saves, making 11 stops in the second half and seven in the third quarter alone.
 
Wesleyan has a challenging slate upcoming as the Cardinals travel to Middlebury on March 29 before heading to Amherst on April 2 and playing host to Tufts on April 5.