Box Score It was a tale of two halves for the Colorado College men's lacrosse team against No. 10 Roanoke College on Sunday afternoon at Washburn Field.
 
Thanks in part to a superb defensive effort that included a career-high 22 saves by senior Chase Murphy, the Tigers kept the Maroons at bay for the first 30 minutes and held a 4-2 lead. CC's All-American goaltender was especially sharp in the first period when he stopped 11 of 12 shots.
 
Roanoke, however, exploded for 10 goals during the second half and rallied for a 12-7 victory.
 
"He's the best goalie in the country," Colorado College head coach Sean Woods said. "We need him to play that way for us to beat this type of team. He did that. He gave us a chance to win and we have to do a better job of backing him up."
 
Roanoke head coach Bill Pilat was equally impressed with Murphy and with the Tigers' defensive unit.
 
"He's a great player and their defense is pretty good, too," Pilat said. "My son (senior Will Pilat) is an All-American attackman and 17 (Tim Jenkins) shut him down pretty good. Our No. 11 is going to be an All-American and they shut him down, too. I was real impressed with the Colorado College defense."
 
Even though CC led 2-1 at the end of one quarter on goals by freshman midfielder Drew Wiseman and sophomore attackman Robbie Stern, and 4-2 at halftime after senior midfielder Eric Neumeyer and junior attackman Austin Davie found the net, it didn't capitalize on opportunities to build an even larger lead.
 
Unfortunately, that came back to haunt the Tigers in the final 30 minutes.
 
Senior midfielder Joey Dishaw provided a glimpse of what was to come when he scored on a laser from the right wing 57 seconds into the third quarter, but Colorado College's Chris Brower answered a little less than three minutes later with a man-up tally at the edge of the crease off the rebound of a Davie shot.
 
Markers by Dishaw and Tyler McWilliams tied the game at 5-5 with 8:12 remaining in the third quarter, but Stern put the Tigers ahead for the last time when he came out from behind the net on the right side, spun and whistled a bouncing shot between the legs of freshman goaltender Ian Davies.
 
Less than a minute later, Pilat found the net from just outside the right post after taking a dazzling feed from sophomore midfielder IV Stucker. The Maroons took their first lead when McWilliams scored for the second time with 2:23 to play in the third quarter.
 
Roanoke scored three goals during the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, including two while playing with an extra man, to extend its lead to four.
 
"When you're out of gas in the defensive zone, you foul because you are trying to make a play," Woods said. "I think that hurt us when they went on their run. Offensively, when they went on their run, we stalled out a little bit. That's when you have to fight back and answer with a goal. Credit to them, they capitalized."
 
Wiseman's second goal with 9:33 left trimmed CC's deficit to 10-7, but that was as close as the Tigers would get.
 
Freshman attackman Brendan Devane and Dishaw closed out the scoring for the Maroons, who improved to 4-1.
 
Roanoke finished with a 47-36 advantage in total shots and had a slimmer 39-30 edge in ground balls.
 
The one area in which the Maroons dominated was on faceoffs, where Max Krauss and Reid Kaminski each won nine of 10.
 
Their 13 extra possessions in the second half proved to be a major factor in their come-from-behind victory.
 
"We've got a lot of good weapons on faceoff and Kaminski is a long-stick which is kind of rare, but be he's really good," Pilat said. "Kraus is a veteran."
 
Starting goaltender Burke McManus made six saves during the first two quarters. Davies stopped 10 shots during the final 30 minutes. 
 
"We can play with anybody," Woods said. "We have to do it for four quarters. We're going to move forward and be a better team."
 
Colorado College returns to action on Thursday, March 10, against Cornell College.