Despite being mauled by Plattsburgh State players, Bates’ Charlie Fay squeezes through to get a shot off during the first half of Wednesday’s playoff game in Lewiston.

LEWISTON — In Wednesday’s second round NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament game, Bates College was firing on all cylinders.

Eleven different Bobcats found the back of the net and Bates rebounded from a stunning loss in the NESCAC semifinals to defeat Plattsburgh State 23-10 at Garcelon Field.

The Bobcats (15-1) will now host NESCAC rival Amherst on Saturday in the third round. The Mammoths defeated Springfield College 14-11 on Wednesday. Bates defeated Amherst, 23-17, on March 12.

“It’s really nice to see us play our game, get up and down the field,” Bates coach Peter Lasagna said.

Clarke Jones had five goals to lead the Bobcats while Charlie Fay had four and Matt Chlastawa added a hat trick.

“I think everyone was just paying attention to all the weapons we have on offense,” Jones said. “Luckily, I was at the end of the stick to get a couple of good feeds to get some goals.”

It was a wild start to the game. Jones got the scoring started, giving Bates a 1-0 lead just 42 seconds in, before Ryan Hubbard responded for Plattsburgh six seconds later. Joe Eiseman, who assisted on Hubbard’s goal gave the Cardinals (12-6) a 2-1 lead a minute in.

Jones and Fay scored back-to-back goals to give Bates a 3-2 lead before the two-minute mark. Andrew Belz tied the game at three.

Plattsburgh coach Joe May knew the game was going to be about momentum.

“We are a team that lives and rides on momentum,” May said. “We went up against really good team today. I knew this game was going to be on runs where they went on a run and we would need to respond on a run ourselves. What happened was, a senior heavy Bates team had a bunch more runs than we did.”

Things started to settle down in Bates’ favor when Jones scored his hat trick goal at the 5:19 mark of the opening quarter to give the Bobcats a 4-3 lead.

Lasagna said the game plan wasn’t necessarily to go through Jones, but he saw something watching the Cardinals on tape that played to Jones’ strengths.

“He’s a great cutter, so it fit in well on what we saw on tape from their defense,” Lasagna said. “They like to slide really earlier and the goal was to move the ball, cut to the middle of their defense before they could recover. Clarke is one of the best in the country of doing that.”

The teams got defensive for the next seven-plus minutes before Duke Brown-Jones and Kyle Weber scored to make it 6-3 at the end of one quarter.

The Bobcats continued to control the game well into the second quarter. Wes Shrewsbury and Fay stretched the lead to 8-3 early in the second. Jones made it 9-3.

Bates goaltender Rob Strain was solid all game, and in particular on a stretch from the second half of the first quarter to the midway point of the second. He made seven of his eight first-half saves in that stretch.

“I think we finally figured out what we are playing against,” Strain said. “We understood what they were trying to do and we figured out what we were going to do to try to defend them.”

Plattsburgh played through the seven-minute mark of the second until they found the back of the net as Hubbard scored his second goal of the game. Andrew Melvin responded for Bates.

The Cardinals ended the first half on a run. Ryan Callahan and Hubbard scored at the end of the half to make it 10-6 Bates.

The Bobcats regained the momentum to start the third quarter as Weber and Melvin doubled the lead to 12-6.

Plattsburgh cut the deficit to four again when Jake Carroll scored two goals, including a man-up goal.

Every time the Cardinals made a run, though, Bates went on a run of its own. The Bobcats ended the third quarter with four unanswered goals. Jones found the back of the net with 5:47 remaining in the third quarter. Fay scored his third with a little over four minutes left. Weber and Chlastawa ended the quarter as Bates doubled its lead again to 16-8.

Bates put the stranglehold on early in the fourth, adding three more goals. Jake Walsh, Burke Smith and Andrew Small all found the back of the net to stretch the lead to 19-8.

“Everyone knows about Charlie Fay, Kyle Weber and all the big names,” Jones said. “But, getting everyone in there, getting touches and getting everyone some points is a good thing.”

Hubbard stopped the bleeding for the Cardinals when he notched their ninth goal. Chlastawa responded with his second and third goals of the contest to make it 21-9.

Fay and Brendan Mullally capped the scoring off for Bates.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

Bates’ Charlie Gravina, right, tries to slow down Plattsburgh State’s Mike Gay as he heads down the sideline during the first half of Wednesday’s playoff game at Bates.Bates goalie Rob Strain makes a save on a point blank shot by Plattsburg State’s Ryan Callahan during Wednesday’s playoff game in Lewiston.Plattsburgh State’s Sean Hayes zeros in on Bates’ Andrew Melvin as he heads toward the net during Wednesday’s playoff game in Lewiston.Bates’ Sam Francis looks to gain control of the ball after facing off with Plattsburgh State’s Joe Eiseman during the first half of Wednesday’s playoff game at Bates.Bates’ Wes Shrewsbury, left and Charlie Fay celebrate a goal during the first half of Wednesday’s playoff game against Plattsburgh State.Plattsburg State’s Mike Gay, right, can’t contain Bates’ R.J. Sarka as he slips through for a shot on goal during Wednesday’s playoff game in Lewiston.