March 18, 2005                                                                      

Event:  Men’s Lacrosse

Site: Ann Arbor, Michigan (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Score: #5 Michigan 12, Eastern Michigan 3

Records: UM (4-2, 1-0 CCLA), Eastern Michigan (0-1, 0-1 CCLA)

Next U-M Game: Friday – Sunday, March 25 - 27 – Michigan Invitational (Ann Arbor, Mich. - Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes

Ann Arbor, Mich. – The #5 ranked University of Michigan men’s lacrosse team defeated local rival Eastern Michigan University by a score of 12-3 in front of a packed Oosterbaan Fieldhouse of almost 500 fans.  In their first CCLA contest of the year, the Wolverines dominated the Eagles for most of the game, retaining possession throughout and limiting EMU to only five shots while tallying 43 of their own. 

Michigan jumped out to early lead just moments after the opening faceoff as EMU committed a slashing penalty on the Wolverine’s first possession.  Michigan capitalized on the penalty as junior midfielder Jim Constantine (Troy, Mich./Seaholm) notched his first goal since returning from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for almost a month.  Constantine was assisted on the play by senior attackman, captain Ryan Clark (Summit, N.J./Summit) who is also working his way back into the lineup after suffering a knee injury before the Wolverine’s last road-trip.  Constantine finished the day with 2-1-3, all firsts of the season. 

Michigan notched another goal in the first period as freshman Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) was fed from behind the net by Tom Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) and buried a low shot giving Michigan the 2-0 lead.  U-M would be unable to score again in the first period despite retaining possession for nearly the entire opening frame. 

Constantine opened the scoring in the second quarter and jumpstarted a seven-goal second period with a blast from the top of circle at the 12:13 mark.  Michigan scored six more goals in the quarter, including four in a two-minute span between 5:55 and 3:37, and entered the locker-room with a lead of 9-0.

The Maize and Blue scored two more goals in the third period while continuing to hold the Eagles off the board and by this time, backup goaltender Graham Townsend (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville East) had replaced senior Dan Webber (Weston, Mass./Weston).  Webber made the two lone saves of the game in the second period, while Townsend allowed three goals in his half of play. 

Eastern Michigan scored three inconsequential goals in the final frame, falling to the Wolverines by a final of 12-3.  The most telling stat of the game was the differential in the team’s clearing rates.  Michigan was able earn possession and move up-field with ease, finishing the day with 20-24 totals.  Conversely, EMU was held to 11-35 totals including 4-14 in the first half when Michigan jumped out to the 9-0 lead.  The Wolverines also bounced back with a strong performance in the faceoff circle, finishing 17-19.  Michigan had struggled mightily in that area during their most recent road-trip and had a .574 faceoff percentage through their first five games. 

U-M notched 61 groundballs to the Eagle’s 28, and held EMU scoreless on their lone man-up attempt while tallying 4-8 totals themselves. 

The Wolverines will take to the field again on Friday, March 25 when they kickoff the Michigan Invitational against #7 Colorado at 7:30 pm at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor.  Michigan will then host two more days of lacrosse action with #12 Oregon and Florida also coming into Ann Arbor.  Please visit mgoblue.com for the complete schedule.

NOTES

●  2004’s Team Rookie of the Year, sophomore attackman Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill. /Libertyville) returned from an ankle injury on Friday night and scored his first points of the season, finishing with 1-1-2 totals.

● Senior long-stick midfielder David Silverman (Potomac, Md./Churchill), the team’s leading groundball man last year with 106, paced the squad again vs. EMU, finishing with nine.

● Michigan was able to spread around the scoring vs. Eastern, with eight Wolverines recording multi-point games.  The teams’ leading point-man in ’05, freshman attackman Evan Fox (Monsey, N.Y./Suffern) finished with a team-high three assists to extend his point total to 14-10-24, twice as much as fellow freshman Peter Krauss who holds the second spot with 8-4-12 totals. 

● Senior faceoff specialist Trevor Broad (Grosse Pointe, Mich./University Liggett) bounced back in a big way after a rough time in the faceoff circle while out west.  Broad finished 10 for 10 on the night.

●  The five shots allowed marks the lowest game total so far in the ’05 season.  Michigan’s previous low was vs. Missouri which was eight

●  This was the first ever meeting between the two teams.  2005 is Eastern Michigan’s first year in the “A” Division of the CCLA.

QUOTES

U-M Head Coach John Paul

On the game itself:  “We played how I expected us to play.  We had a bad two weeks of practice leading up and it showed tonight.  We were sloppy and played a little uninspired at times.  I think we need to learn two things.  One is to be hungry all of the time, no matter who we are playing against, and the second is that I don’t think we hurt enough after a big loss, like to BYU for example.  We were not were we needed to be over the past two weeks.  If we had the field to ourselves tonight after our game we would be running right now.”

On the reaction to the BYU loss and the subsequent two weeks off:  “There were a few things that were evident in the first practice after BYU.  We didn’t hurt enough first of all.  I’m not saying we should have won that game, but we definitely could have.  You can get a positive out of that in the fact that we were close the entire time, but you can also look at it in a discouraging way and say we need to finally learn how to win those games.  We should be getting better about that and we’re not.”

On who impressed vs. EMU: “Obviously Silverman [David] played very well again.  He was all over the field, and, I thought that Webber played well also.  He wasn’t forced to make too many saves, but he stepped up when he had to and he cleared the ball well.  The entire “d” also played as well as could be while the starters were in.  We’ll make a few changes this week on the offensive side of things though.  Some new fires need to be lit under some guys.”

On the play of the offense: “Most of our goals came from transition and riding them hard, it wasn’t a lot of settled stuff for us.  We had some simple execution problems, but I think some of that also comes from our inability to run the offenses properly.  We put ourselves in bad positions and that makes it harder to simply make the play.  At this point we should be making better decisions.  That leads to better execution.”

On the upcoming Michigan Invitational: “This is going to be a tough weekend for us.  We’ve got three teams coming in here who are going to be gunning for us.  These are teams that are going to have to finish strong and will need quality wins vs. teams such as ourselves to make the tourney.  We need to have a very good week of practice this week, which is something we haven't done in awhile.”

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