The unbeaten and unprecedented season for the Hope College men’s lacrosse team will continue after the Flying Dutchmen stunned No. 15 Bates College 14-12 to advance to the program’s first elite eight.
It is the first time any MIAA lacrosse team has reached this round in the NCAA Division III tournament and has been reported to be the first unranked team to reach the elite eight since the tournament began in 1980.
The win on Saturday, May 9, pushed Hope’s record to 20-0, the last unbeaten team in the field.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” Hope coach Michael Schanals said in the postgame press conference. “They have been disciplined. They’ve worked, worked, and worked every day. They proved it tonight that they could get out there and take whatever punch that came their way. They kept running, kept working, kept sharing the ball with each other. It’s really a fantastic testimony to their effort and their love for each other. I love these guys, so proud.”
Hope, which three-peated as MIAA regular-season champion this season, topped a nationally-ranked opponent for the second time in two days. The Flying Dutchmen defeated No. 18 Ithaca College, 14-11, on Friday.
Against Bates, Hope rallied for a historic victory by scoring five of the game’s final six goals.
The Flying Dutchmen struck with the game-winner from sophomore attack Preston Hoexum of Ada with 1 minute, 56 seconds remaining, then the clincher from sophomore Weston Godbold of Lowell with 22 seconds remaining.
Hoexum topped the Flying Dutchmen with three goals, giving him 63 on the season that is one shy of matching the Hope career record set by Gunnar Elder in 2016.
Junior attack Gibson Heethuis of Hudsonville, contributed a team-high five points on two goals and a game-high five assists. Heethuis extended his program record for assists for 75 and upped his season goal total to a career-high 62.
Godbold and sophomore attack Jack Zuiderveen each had two goals.
The Flying Dutchmen overcame a Bates barrage of 57 shots and 25-of-30 faceoff wins. Bates led by three goals twice during the first half and two 51 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Senior goalie Jack Balmforth of Livonia stopped 11 shots. Bates (12-6) also committed 20 turnovers to Hope’s 12.
“A big part of our game plan is that pressure that we put on any opponent,” said Jack McNamara, a senior midfielder from Ada. “Time after time again, it’s the body punches that get to teams. We just stick to our script and to our discipline. Eventually, they’ll toss the ball away or they’ll have a dumb turnover or something like that. We’ve got to take advantage of that and we were able to tonight. We didn’t let the highs get too high or the lows get too low. We just stuck with it, kept throwing the jab and advanced.”
At commencement, McNamara and his fellow graduating seniors can revel in the thrill of graduation — for a day. Then, the focus will shift to preparing to face on the road the winner of the third-round game between No. 2-ranked Bowdoin College and No. 11 Stevens Institute of Technology.
“We’ve got a lot of opportunities coming forward,” said John Foster, a senior defender from Ada. “We’ve stayed true to being in the moment and having each other’s back every day. [The Bates game] was just a testament to having fun and playing the game we love, giving it one more push at the end.”
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope lacrosse stuns No. 15 Bates to advance to NCAA elite eight for first time, remain unbeaten
Reporting by Dan D’Addona, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
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