Saints Peter & Paul lacrosse star Liam Durnbaugh will play at Boston University

Durnbaugh reflects on why he will play his D1 lacrosse with the Terriers in the Patriot League

Fresh off a MIAA B Conference lacrosse championship with Saints Peter & Paul, Liam Durnbaugh is looking forward to excelling on the next level with Boston University. / Liam Durnbaugh

This weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, eight programs from the three divisions of college lacrosse will be out to win a 2025 NCAA title. Interestingly, a 2026 MIAA Lacrosse player, whose high school program recently claimed a “B” Conference crown, has committed to a Division I school located less than forty minutes from that venue.

Liam Durnbaugh of Saints Peter & Paul High School, in Easton, Maryland, will be headed to a program – Boston University – which has experienced a great deal of success since beginning DI play in 2014. Durnbaugh is currently one of twelve 2026 players who are committed to the Terriers and Coach Ryan Polley.

Coach Polley, who has been BU Lacrosse’s leader since the inception, has built quite a solid program. From 2016 to the present time, the Terriers have had eight winning seasons. They have finished with double-digit wins six times, including each of the past five full years. BU, a member of the Patriot League, continues to be a regular in their conference tournament. In fact, in 2022, 2024, and this season, the Terriers and Polley got all the way to the title game of that tournament.

The top highlights in the history of the program are, both for the first time ever, hoisting the 2022 Patriot League Tournament trophy, and, soon afterwards, appearing in the NCAA Tournament. Other top moments have been being ranked in the Top 20 on many occasions.

As for why Durnbaugh chose BU, a program which wears the scarlet and white and calls historic Nickerson Field home, he said the school has been at the top of his list from the moment the recruiting process began. Right when Terriers assistant coach Jack Rowlett sent him a text at Midnight on September 1st, Liam knew it would be a place where he could see himself at as a student-athlete.

In fact, before that, and even on his visit, Coaches Polley, Rowlett, and Mike Silipo (associate head coach) really made sure to value Durnbaugh as a person and make him feel like he was a son to each of them. In addition, while watching the team, he noticed and felt a solid sense of brotherhood. And that is exactly what Liam had been looking for in a collegiate program.

Another reason for Durnbaugh’s decision is that he was very impressed with the city of Boston. He says that city is one of the prettiest, cleanest, and most fun he has ever visited. Liam also plans to major in Kinesiology while at BU. And, when doing research on colleges that offered that area of study and had Division I Lacrosse, sure enough, BU was ranked in the Top 10. Finally, as for the Terriers in the lacrosse “department,” Durnbaugh feels that BU is very much of an up and coming program. He wants to play somewhere where he may well have the opportunity to experience playing in the Final Four on Memorial Day Weekend.

Durnbaugh truly believes that the Terriers and Polley could get to be a part of that special time in all of lacrosse in the near future. Actually, as of right now, with the Richmond Spiders having checked the box this postseason, BU may well now be a top sentimental favorite when it comes to getting First Round win number one in the NCAA Tournament. Could that, and very possibly much more, happen while Durnbaugh is with the Terriers?

Many congratulations to Liam Durnbaugh and his family! Without a doubt, his current and future scholastic lacrosse programs are both doing very well now and appear to have a lot to look forward to!