2000-2001 Michigan Men's Lacrosse -- Game #15

Michigan 25, Colorado 14
7:00 p.m., Saturday, April 21, 2001
Oosterbaan Fieldhouse, Ann Arbor, MI

2^nd Half Surge Buries the Buffs

6-1 Third Quarter Blows Close Game Open

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- The 2nd ranked Wolverines used a 6-1 third quarter to blow open a thin 11-9 halftime lead, and then added 8 more in the fourth to defeat #9 Colorado 25-14 tonight. Michigan’s regular season record ends up at 14-1 with the win. Colorado falls to 14-6 with one game to play tomorrow at Michigan State. Both teams head into their respective conference tournaments next weekend, Colorado as the 3rd seed in the RMILL and Michigan as the 1st seed in the CCLA.
 

   Senior Tom Burns (Bloomfield, MI/Brother Rice HS) returned to action after missing the last five games with a severe ankle sprain, and led Michigan with 6 points on 2 goals and 4 assists in just over a half of play. Ben Herbst (Pikesville, MD/Pikesville HS) totaled 5 points on 2 goals and 3 assists and Kevin Chan (Manhasset, NY/Manhasset HS), Dave Bernard (Litchfield, CT/Westminster HS) and Chip Thomas (Tenafly, NJ/Dwight-Englewood HS) added 3 goals each, as 14 different Wolverines scored in the game.

   The 14 goals given up by the Wolverines were the most scored by a Michigan opponent this season. It’s only the fourth time in 2001 Michigan has allowed double digits. The Wolverines had been allowing just 7 goals a game on the year.

   Colorado falls to 0-5 against top-10 teams this season. The Buffalos were led by Mark Guilford, who scored 6 goals in the game. Jay Erikson added two, and Noah Kaufman had 3 points on 1 goal and 2 assists. Chris Bluse went all the way in goal, recording 13 saves.

   After Erikson scored early in the 3rd quarter for Colorado to make the score 11-10, the Wolverines went on a 6-0 run to pull away for a commanding 17-10 margin at the start of the 4th. Both teams traded a pair of goals at the start of the 4th, but Michigan then ran off five straight to turn it into a blowout.

   The first half was exciting to watch, as both teams were eager to run.  Bernard opened the scoring at the 11:48 mark, when Burns found him cutting through the middle of the Colorado defense, but Guilford answered just 27 seconds later when he dodged through a slide to even it up. Longstick midfielder Dave DiCamillo (Port Washington, NY/Schrieber HS), who seemed to be all over the field tonight, scored his second of the year off an interception of a clearing pass. In a very rare occurrence, three Michigan longsticks scored goals in the game, including DiCamillo. Close defensemen John Morgan (Rockville Centre, NY/South Side HS) and Wesley Martus (Nashville, TN/Hillsboro HS) each added one of their own.

   The Buffalos held a slim 6-5 lead at the end of one before Michigan made some adjustments to slow things down and play at a pace they are comfortable with. They outscored Colorado 20-8 from that point on.

   One key to the game was Michigan’s dominance in faceoffs. Freshmen Justin Gal (Amherst, MA/Milton Academy) and Kevin Toller (Ann Arbor, MI/Pioneer HS) each went 14-6 on the day.  Sooman Kim (Troy, MI/Troy HS) recorded 9 saves in his 15th start of the season for the Wolverines.

   Michigan plays next Saturday in the semi-finals of the CCLA Tournament at the IUPUI Stadium in Indianapolis. The Wolverines, who have won the CCLA Tournament the past two years, will once again go in as the #1 seed and a receive a bye through Friday’s first round. The final tournament seedings and schedule will be released Monday.

NOTES
• Jeff Hadwin’s (Vestal, NY/Vestal HS) 2 goals added to his Michigan career record (since the inception of the USLIA) 243.

• The team will not practice again until Wednesday to allow everyone time to complete final exams. Wednesday and Thursday practices will have to be enough to prepare for next weekend’s CCLA Tournament. The team bus leaves for Indianapolis Friday at noon.

• The RMILL has three teams ranked in the top 10, and Michigan has hosted all three of them this season, finishing with a 2-1 record. #1 Colorado State provided Michigan’s only loss this season, 11-8 on March 24. #3 BYU fell to the Wolverines 10-5 on April 7, and tonight’s 25-14 win over #9 Colorado completed the series.

• Colorado was the 5th team in the top 10 Michigan played this season, and the 11th in the top-25. Michigan’s 2001 schedule is rated the 3rd toughest in the USLIA by LaxPower, behind Brigham Young and California.

• Tonight was the last home game for seven Michigan seniors: Bernard, Burns, Chan, Greg Deutch (Boca Raton, FL/St. Andrews HS), Hadwin, Martus and Micah Veith (Oak Park, IL/Oak Park River Forest HS). Hadwin, Martus and Veith are Michigan’s tri-captains.


QUOTES
UM Head Coach John Paul
On the adjustments made at the half…”I think we were just a little too fired up in the first half, to the point that we weren’t playing very smart. We were playing a bit out of control – too aggressively on defense and in the middle of the field and too quick to go to the goal on offense. We just needed to settle down and play within our gameplan, so we reminded the guys about the things we’ve been doing that got us here, and to their credit, they adjusted.”

On the pace of the game…”Those are probably the best midfielders we’ve seen this year. We proved in the first half that we have the horses to run with them, but that’s not the kind of game we want to play. A shootout is just too out-of-control. We’d rather control the pace ourselves, play good defense, and pick our spots offensively. As you can see, we can still score a lot of goals playing that way, but we need to limit our opponent’s opportunities.”

On having Tom Burns back…”Tom was so excited to play tonight. I know it’s been killing him just sitting and watching. He’s probably the most competitive guy we have on the team. He’s not nearly 100% yet, and we had to pull him out early as his ankle got tender, but he showed why he’s an impact player. Even on a bad wheel, and just playing part of the game, he led us in scoring.”


Box Score
Michigan vs. Colorado
Saturday, April 21, 2001
7:00 p.m., Oosterbaan Fieldhouse, Ann Arbor, Michigan

 

Goalies
Michigan: Sooman Kim (60:00 minutes, 14 goals allowed, 9 saves)
Colorado: Chris Bluse (60:00 minutes, 25 goals allowed, 13 saves)
 

Team Statistics

Penalties: Michigan 10/9:30, Colorado 13/11:00

Officials
Rob Quinn, Lee Spitzer, Rick Szalma
 

Attendance
318
 

Scoring Summary

* Man-up Goal