According to first-year standout Sean Higgins, he was just in the right place at the right time. Six times.

“It was a bad pass fed to the crease, and I picked it up from up top and scored [in the] low right[-hand corner of the goal],” explained Higgins, who led men’s lacrosse with six goals in a 7–17 win against the La Roche College Redhawks on Saturday.

Higgins impressed both himself and his father, who was watching proudly from the stands, with his goal-scoring streak. “I thought I was done after a couple goals, but I just kept on getting opportunities to score. It was especially exciting because my dad was there; I think he made me more relaxed.”

The rest of the team was equally relaxed and confident coming into the game. Not having played or heard of La Roche prior to Saturday’s victory may have helped the Yeomen.

Senior captain Matt Fineman said, “[Not knowing about La Roche] allowed us to come out and play [the way] we normally do in practice, and when you play the way you feel most comfortable, you often do the best.”

The game began with a bang. The Yeomen put in the first goal, creating a wave of momentum that swept through the duration of the game.

“Usually when we score first, we do better, as opposed to when we are down by one, and people feel like they have to catch up,” commented Fineman.

Imbued with a sense of confidence, the Yeomen scored seven additional goals in the first half, and did not let up until the final 15 seconds of the half, when La Roche managed to scrounge up two points of its own.

“Our offense kind of clicked,” said Fineman. “It had been having trouble but they really came together as a unit that allowed for some early scores at the beginning of the game.”

The second half brought even more success. The Yeomen scored nine more goals and allowed the Redhawks to score only five.

“We shared the ball really well, and so everyone became a threat,” said Higgins. This strategy proved beneficial, as eight different players contributed at least one goal to the victory. Following Higgins’s six goals, senior Dan Fineman scored three, while sophomore Mickey Fiorillo and junior Thomas Cool each contributed two. The cohesiveness and cooperation of the team “opened up possibilities for other people to score,” said Higgins. Both first-year Brian Schupack and sophomore Kirby Livingston scored their first career goals.

Saturday’s game gave the team a lot of confidence going into Wednesday’s final conference game against Kenyon College.

Before the game, Higgins anticipated a good outcome. “We now know that we have the potential to put points up, and we can run with any team we want to. We’re better than we think. We have the potential to beat Kenyon; we’re just going up from here.”

Unfortunately, this confidence was not enough to carry the Yeomen to a victory, and they lost 3–13 to the Kenyon Lords.

Oberlin did, however, put up a valiant fight. Junior Thomas Hake scored the Yeomen’s first goal of the game, but unfortunately the team could not muster enough momentum to score any more until the last eight minutes of the game, when first-year Austin Little and senior Dan Fineman added two more goals to the Yeomen’s score.

Though it may not have been the optimal way to end the season, the Yeomen proved that they have the potential to move forward as a program in seasons to come.