The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s lacrosse team fell to the McGill Redmen 9-8 on Saturday, October 4 at Varsity Centre and 15-9 to the Carleton Ravens on Sunday, October 5 at the University of Toronto’s back campus field.

The first half of Saturday’s match proved to be a thrilling back-and-forth battle. Although Toronto found themselves down two goals early in the first quarter, leading scorers Will Dunlop (Windsor, Ont.) and Daniel Fleming (Toronto, Ont.) scored a goal apiece to get the Blues back in the game.

Toronto took the lead twice in the second quarter, but McGill answered each time to kepp things deadlocked. Matthew Hoskins (Ochrios, JAM) scored the Blues third goal and Ian Parrag (Buffalo, N.Y.) added another in the last minute of the quarter. The Redmen replied each time and the game was still tied at the midway point of the game.

Despite some stellar play from goalie Angus Dinely (Toronto, Ont.), Toronto had trouble in the third quarter, allowing McGill to score four unanswered goals. The Blues started to throw their weight around and were finally rewarded when James Forbes (Campbellville, Ont.) scored with less than two minutes to go in the quarter to pull Toronto to within three going into the final frame.

McGill scored first but the Blues rallied back as Mikael Chullen (Toronto, Ont.), Forbes and Fleming each potted one to cut the lead to one. Despite their best efforts, Toronto ran out of time and fell to the McGill Redmen 9-8.

In Sunday action, neither Toronto or Carleton was able to gain momentum in the first half of the game, as the Ravens only led 7-6 at the end of two quarters.

Carleton took control in the third quarter and Toronto was unable to find an answer as the game ended 15-9 in favour of the Ravens.

Carleton middle Shane Davidson (Whitby, Ont.) led the Ravens with two goals and seven assists while teammate Tim Bergin (Kingston, Ont.) recorded five goals and one assist.

Although he didn’t score, Fleming led the Blues in points, tallying six assists in the loss. Chullen scored three goals and tallied two assists while Forbes recorded four goals for the Blues.

The Varsity Blues men’s lacrosse team travels to Peterborough on Saturday, October 18 and Ottawa on Sunday, October 19 to take on the Trent Excalibur and Carleton Ravens. Game times are set for 4:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectively.