February 19, 2005                                                                      

Event:  Men’s Lacrosse

Site: Ann Arbor, Michigan (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Score: #6 Michigan 8, St. Vincent 9

Records: UM (1-1, 0-0 CCLA), St. Vincent (1-0), (0-0 AMC)

Next U-M Game: Monday, February 28 -- vs. Arizona State (Tempe, Arizona – Sun Devil Band Field), 7:00 p.m. MST

Wolverines Drop Nail-Biter to St. Vincent

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Ann Arbor, Mich. – The #6 ranked University of Michigan men’s lacrosse team lost to Division II opponent St. Vincent by a score of 9-8, Saturday (Feb. 19) evening in front of 247 fans at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse.  In a classic sea-saw battle, neither team was able to pull away when holding the lead, with the game coming down to the final seconds.  Trailing 9-8 in the waning moments, the Wolverines had possession of the ball in the final 30 seconds with the man-up advantage but failed to tie the game to force overtime.

It took almost nine minutes for either offense to find the back of the net to open the contest, with St. Vincent jumping out to the 1-0 lead at the 6:44 mark on a goal from midfielder Tim Maser.  After receiving a pass at the top of the zone, Maser cut in front and buried the shot for the opening tally.  The Maize and Blue would answer back in quick succession with back to back goals from senior attackman Ryan Clark (Summit, N.J./Summit) at the 5:45 and 5:30 marks of the first period.  After the Bearcats tied the game at 2-2 on a goal from Ian Poole, Michigan rallied off three unanswered goals late in the first, and early in the second period to give U-M a 5-2 lead with 12:50 left in the second.  Clark was involved on two of the goals, scoring one and assisting on Mike O’Leary’s (St. Louis, MO./Clayton) man-up goal.  Freshman midfielder Bobby Morales (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) finished the Wolverine offensive thrust with his second goal of the young season.

Just as Michigan was starting to find their offensive flow, St. Vincent found a way to stem the tide, and fight their way back into the game, tallying four unanswered goals of their own between 8:59 and 1:30 of the second period to grab an apparent 6-5 lead heading into halftime.  A delay of game penalty on St. Vincent right before the end of the half however gave Michigan a chance to tie the game before entering the locker-room.  Junior midfielder Brian Vincent (Farmington Hills, Mich./Univ. of Detroit Jesuit) was able to capitalize, ripping a high shot from the left side off a feed from freshman attackman Tom Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./Univ. of Detroit Jesuit).  The two teams entered the half with the game knotted up at 6-6.

After a relatively high-scoring first half, neither team was able to capture the momentum in the third with Michigan scoring the lone goal of the period on the first of freshman Evan Fox’s (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) two goals on the evening.  Michigan had a number of chances in the third but were unable to capitalize, forcing St. Vincent goalie Pete DeSantis to stop six third-period shots.   

Entering the final frame trailing 7-6, the Bearcats opened the scoring in the fourth at the 8:53 mark on a goal from Vince Chiodo after he wrapped around the back of the net and beat senior goaltender Dan Webber (Weston, Mass./Weston) just over his shoulder.  Just under two minutes later the Wolverines answered back, re-gaining the lead on a man-up goal from Fox.  Fox blasted a high shot from the left side, sneaking the goal just inside the post. 

Michigan retained the 8-7 lead until just over three and a half minutes remained, when St. Vincent midfielder Bill Leinendecker dodged in from the top of the zone and let loose a low shot that took a strange bounce and just barely crossed the goal line before spinning back out.  Just over 20 seconds later at the 3:14 mark, the Bearcats captured the lead for the second time in the game on a goal from Bryan Poole right on the doorstep.  On his knees, Poole was able to find a way to throw a fake to make Webber commit and let loose a low shot that gave St. Vincent a 9-8 lead. 

Michigan had their chances in the final three minutes, failing to execute two man-up opportunities in the final two minutes.  The Wolverines last chance came with four seconds left after a St. Vincent defender attempted to clear the ball downfield to run the clock out but inadvertently struck the ceiling of Oosterbaan Fieldhouse with the ball, giving the Maize and Blue one last chance.  A desperation pass into the crease found no one as time expired on the Wolverines. 

Statistically, Michigan won many aspects of the game except for the final score.  U-M fired 40 shots compared to the Bearcats 25, and scooped up 45 groundballs to St. Vincent’s 25.  2004’s leading groundball man David Silverman (Potomac, Md./Churchill) paced the Wolverines with eight groundballs.  After finishing last night 13 for 15 in the faceoffs, senior midfielder Trevor Broad (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Univ. Leggitt) once again dominated, finishing 16 for 18.  The Wolverines were also very successful clearing the ball, completing the transition 16 of 20 times, while St. Vincent posted 19-31 totals. 

On the extra-man the Maize and Blue were only able to find the back of the net on three of 12 attempts.  St. Vincent finished 3-6.  Webber finished with eight saves, as DeSantis posted 13. 

Michigan will next take the field on February 28 at 7:00 pm PST in Tempe, Arizona vs. Arizona State as the Wolverines begin a three game road trip that will have them squaring off against Arizona State, Arizona, and rival Brigham Young from February 28 – March 5.  For all your Michigan Men’s Lacrosse news please visit MGOBLUE.com

NOTES

●  In two games, Trevor Broad has won .878% of his faceoffs with a 29-4 record.

●  Senior long-stick midfielder Dave Silverman (Potomac, Md./Churchill), the team’s leading groundball man last year lead the team tonight with eight.  After two games he paces the squad with 13. 

●  Evan Fox and Ryan Clark share the team lead with nine total points.  Each has posted 5-4-9 totals.

●  Through two games the Wolverines are out-shooting their opponents 98-33 and out “groundballing” them 98-36.  However, U-M is only 5-21 (.238) in Man-Up opportunities. 

●  The Wolverines have been very successful in moving the ball up-field completing 29 of 34 clear attempts for a .853 clear percentage.

●  The loss was only the third for Michigan in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse in the past six years.  The other two came to Colorado State in 2004 and 2002.

QUOTES

U-M Head Coach John Paul

On the game itself:  “In the first half we were unable to execute our offense very well.  We just made too many mistakes.  I felt like we had opportunities to build a much bigger lead.  We tightened things up in the second half, but just weren’t able to finish.  Neither team was able to get into much of a flow with the number of penalties called.  Offensively we just need to execute better.  We know we won’t be scoring just on individual effort so we need to run our offense.”

On who impressed:  “Once again I thought Trevor [Broad] was dominating.  He’s really stepped up.  Defensively Mike Roth did a great job.  We put him on #4, who carries a lot for them, and he did a nice job keeping him in check.  I think he stripped him at least 4 or 5 times.  Eric Rimmke also had a great game.  He got to cover the bigger Poole brother, who's listed at 240, and he played great individual defense on him."

On the play of the “D” against a very challenging opponent:  “I think the defense played very well tonight.  I told them at halftime that five of the six goals scored against us came because of offensive mistakes and turnovers.  Those goals that come off turnovers are really two-goal swings.  We need to execute better and cut down on the unforced errors.  Until we get Jimmy (Constantine) and Huddy (Matt Hudson) back, we're going to have to depend more on our defense to win games for us, and that's going to be difficult if our offense keeps giving the ball back.”

Senior Captain Ryan Clark

On the game itself:  “They were simply a good team.  We made too many simple mistakes to beat a team like that.  Hopefully it will be a little bit of wake-up call for the guys that there is going to be some good competition this year.  In the final moments we really had some chances.  It was a combination of not keeping our composure in their zone and not being able to execute.” 

Contact: Joe Hennessy (734) 276-8493, jjhennes@umich.edu