The Connecticut College men's lacrosse team fell to Middlebury by a 16-9 decision on Saturday afternoon at Silfen Field. After the teams played a tightly-contested first half, Middlebury opened things up during a strong third quarter which would prove to be the difference. The Panthers outshot the Camels, 14-5, scored four unanswered goals, and they forced the hosts to successfully convert less than half of their clear attempts. Tyler Forbes set up Nick Peterson to open the scoring with nine minutes to play to make it 10-6 and also added a goal at the 1:12 mark. Following a faceoff violation by the Camels on the ensuing draw, Chase Goree finished a pass from Jack Gould just seven seconds later at 1:05 to extend the Panther lead to seven and put the visitors in control. Connecticut College, which trailed by eight after Gould opened the scoring in the fourth, attempted to rally and got a man-up goal when junior Brandon Plante (Urbana, Md.) found senior Jordan Foster (Las Vegas, Nev.) at 7:32. The Camels got another goal just 23 seconds later, but the deficit from a tough third quarter in which they committed nine turnovers while failing to find the back of the net would prove to be too much to overcome. Both teams struggled to find any rhythm offensively at the beginning of the contest, as the shots being attempted at each end were consistently sailing wide. A.J. Kucinski, however, found Eric Jeremiah at 8:20 and Frank Cosolito with 7:01 on the clock to break the scoreless deadlock and get the visitors going. Forbes then tallied back-to-back markers in a span of 1:01 to give the visitors a 5-1 lead before junior Sean Smith (Pasadena, Calif.) managed to score a man-up goal in the final seconds of the opening quarter. After the teams played each other even by scoring four times apiece in the second frame, Middlebury captured momentum and took control of the third en route to winning its first game of the season. Chase Goree and Forbes each finished with six points to lead the way for Middlebury (1-1, NESCAC 1-1), which outshot the hosts by a 50-42 margin. Goree had two goals and four assists, while Forbes found the back of the net five times and added a helper. Nick Peterson and Eric Jeremiah both caused three turnovers apiece and combined to scoop up five ground balls. Charles Midgley made 11 saves to pick up the win between the posts before being relieved for the final five minutes of the game. The Camels, who won 16 of the 29 faceoffs and had a 32-28 edge in ground balls, got three goals and one assist from Foster. Junior Courtney Morgan (South Windsor, Conn.) led the defense with seven ground balls to go along with three caused turnovers, and sophomore faceoff specialist Toby Almeida (Cumberland, R.I.) picked up 13 ground balls while winning 16 of his attempts in the circle. Junior Colin Smith (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) turned away 10 shots in nearly 55 minutes of action. Connecticut College (1-2, NESCAC 0-2) will next face Southern Virginia at historic Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon at 12 p.m.