LEWISTON, Maine – The Connecticut College men's lacrosse team used a strong finish to pick up a 13-12 victory over Bates College on Saturday afternoon in a NESCAC clash at Garcelon Field.

On a day in which neither team led by more than two, it was Conn that finished with a late flurry. JJ Ford (Clinton, Conn.) scored two goals in the final 3:06 of the contest to push the Camels in front, and goalie Will Rice (New Rochelle, N.Y.) made a pair of saves in the last 20 seconds to clinch the victory. 

Ford finished with a game-high three goals and an assist to pace the Camels. He also recorded his 100th career point on the game-winning tally with 2:32 remaining. 

Bobby Chang (South Salem, N.Y.) and Nick McLaughlin (Wilbraham, Mass.) added a pair of goals apiece for Conn, which picked up its first conference win of the season. Jack Tenzer (Charlotte, N.C.) and Aidan McAvoy (Charlotte, N.C.) each chipped in a goal and two assists, and Lorenzo Vogliano (New York, N.Y.) handed out three helpers. 

Bates jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening quarter and kept the Camels off the scoreboard until Liam Horkan (Malden, Mass.) tallied with 5:40 left in the period. Early in the second, scores by Chris Travers (Mill Valley, Calif.) and McAvoy gave Conn its first lead at 3-2 with 10:33 to play in the half. The Bobcats responded with three straight goals to regain the lead, and man-up tallies by Riley McClure and TJ Underhill left the hosts with a 6-4 advantage. 

The Camels countered with two scores in the final 26 seconds of the half to knot the game at 6-6. After Ford fed Tenzer for the first goal, Aidan Gaudet (Cheshire, Conn.) won the ensuing face-off to give Conn another scoring chance in the stanza. Although Bates goalie Andrew Toland stopped an initial shot by Vogliano, McLaughlin quickly forced a loose ball that was scooped up by Chang, who fed the ball back to McLaughlin for a goal with a second to spare on the clock. 

McLaughlin and Ford scored in the opening minutes of the second half—both off feeds by Vogliano—to give the Camels their biggest lead at 8-6. Vogliano later picked up his third assist of the quarter on a goal by Myles Newport (Oakville, Ontario) that put Conn up 9-8. 

It took only 17 seconds into the fourth quarter for the Bobcats to pull even once again. Ben Miller then pushed Bates into the lead at the 8:44 mark with his first of the game, but Chang answered back with an unassisted effort moments later to make it 11-11.

Denzel Evans scored with 5:55 left to give Bates its final lead of the afternoon. Ford tied the game off an assist by Patrick Atkins (Topsfield, Mass.) with 3:06 to go, and 34 seconds later he completed the hat trick with the go-ahead goal off a feed by McAvoy. 

With under a minute to play, Bates forced a turnover at midfield and called a timeout to set up its final possession. The Bobcats' first attempt came with 15 seconds left, a bounce shot from the wing that Rice snuffed out with a scoop to his left. A Conn turnover then yielded a final shot attempt with 10 seconds to go, but Rice was once again up to the task, stopping a shot from eight yards out for his 17th save of the contest.

Gaudet, Travers and Newport each finished with a team-high five ground balls. Zach Bucher (Verona, N.J.) paced the defense with four caused turnovers. 

Conn (3-5 overall, 1-5 NESCAC) will next host Amherst College on Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00 p.m.