March 25, 2005                                                                     

Event:  Men’s Lacrosse

Site: Ann Arbor, Michigan (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Score: #5 Michigan 11, #7 Colorado 3

Records: UM (5-2, 1-0 CCLA), Colorado (7-3, 2-1 RMLC)

Next U-M Game: Saturday, March 26, 7:00pm – vs. #11 Oregon (Ann Arbor, Mich. - Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Ann Arbor, Mich. – The #5 ranked University of Michigan men’s lacrosse team defeated #7 Colorado by a score of 11-3 in front of 512 fans in the first game of the Michigan Invitational on Friday, March 25 at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor.  Michigan came storming out of the gates on their way to 8-1 half-time lead, and never looked back in the second half en-route to their fifth win of the season and their third over a ranked team.

To start the contest, both teams traded early penalties with neither team converting.  It wasn’t until the 8:37 mark of the first period before someone found the back of the net, with the Wolverines striking first, grabbing the 1-0 lead on a goal from freshman Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central).  After the Wolverines set up possession in the Buffalo zone, Krauss received the ball behind the net, wrapped around the left post and fired a high shot over Colorado goaltender Neema Kassaii’s right shoulder.

Colorado answered, tying the game at 1-1 just over a minute later on a goal from junior captain Brandon Bailey on a low shot off a drive down the left alley.  Four minutes later at the 3:06 mark, Michigan regained the lead on a blast from up top from senior captain Anthony Ragnone (Flint, Mich./Flint Powers).  Ragnone received the pass from freshman Evan Fox (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) and fired a high shot through traffic for his third goal of the season. 

Michigan struck again a minute later on a goal from an unfamiliar source.  Scoring the third goal of his four-year career, senior captain Kirk Kozel (Barrington, Ill./Taft Ct.) took over possession at midfield and carried it deep into the zone.  Dodging a couple of Buffalo defenders, Kozel fired a low shot that bounced past Kassaii to give the Maize and Blue a 3-1 lead.  The Wolverines scored two more goals in the first, from more familiar sources in sophomore attackman Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) and senior captain Ryan Clark (Summit, N.J./Summit).  After one period, Michigan was ahead 5-1 and had outshot the Buffs 12-2.

Michigan opened the second period scoring seven minutes in, on a man-up goal from junior midfielder Jim Constantine (Troy, Mich./Seaholm).  After calling a timeout to set up their attack, Constantine found himself open on the left side, about 10 yards out from the goal and quickly fired a shot after receiving the assist from freshman Tom Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit).  Constantine found himself on the other end of the Wolverine’s seventh goal, assisting Matt Hudson on his second goal of the game.  Michigan added a final goal before the half from senior Mike O’Leary (St. Louis, MO./Clayton) to enter the locker-room with a 8-1 lead after 30 minutes of play.

After a scoreless third period of play, Colorado struck first in the fourth quarter on a goal from sophomore Cameron Dunford to cut the lead to six, 8-2.  Three minutes later, Colorado scored again on a goal from junior Brian Morgan from just inside the top of the box, drawing the game to 8-3. 

Colorado got no closer however, as Evan Fox notched his first goal of the night two minutes later on an assist from Ryan Clark.  Clark had possession on the far wing and found a streaking Fox wide open on the near-side post.  Fox buried the shot for his team-leading 15^th goal of the season.  Mike O’leary added his second goal of the game moments later when his first attempt from point-blank was stuffed by Kevin Gollehan, who had come in to relieve Kassai at the end of the first half.  O’Leary grabbed the rebound out of mid-air and fired it home to give the Wolverines a 10-3 lead halfway through the final period of play.  Fox finished the scoring on the day with his second of the game to make the final 11-3. 

Senior goaltender Dan Webber (Weston, Mass./Weston) was excellent throughout, staying focused even while Michigan controlled possession for long stretches of time.  Webber finished with 11 saves in the contest and lowered his already stellar goals-per-game average of 3.48 by only allowing three goals in the contest.   

The Wolverines dominated possession in the game posting 22-29 clear numbers while holding Colorado to 16-26, and also winning the groundball battle 32-27.  The Wolverines were 11-18 in the faceoff circle, and finished 5-9 on the man-up while allowing only one goal in five Buffalo chances. 

Michigan will take to the field again on Saturday, March 26 at 7:00pm vs. #11 Oregon in the day’s second action at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse.  #7 Colorado will take on Florida earlier at 4:00pm.

NOTES

●  2004’s Team Rookie of the Year, sophomore attackman Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill. /Libertyville) returned from an ankle injury last Friday night and scored his first points of the season, finishing with 1-1-2 totals.  Tonight, Hudson continued working his way back into the lineup, notching 2-0-2 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. Colorado, finishing with a season-high 11. 

●  Michigan was once again able to spread around the scoring, with five Wolverines recording multi-point games.  The teams’ leading point-man in ’05, freshman attackman Evan Fox (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) finished with a team-high 2-1-3 to extend his point total to 16-11-27, twice as much as the three individuals who follow in second with 13 total points.

●  Senior captain Kirk Kozel scored his second goal of the season, which mark his second and third goals of his four-year career. 

●  This was Michigan’s second victory over a top-10 team this season.  Michigan defeated then #6 Arizona by a score of 12-1 on March 2.

●  After missing the first five games of the regular season, Jim Constantine has recorded two three point games since his return.  Last week vs. Eastern Michigan, Constantine finished with 2-1-3, while tonight vs. Colorado, he finished with 1-2-3.

QUOTES

U-M Head Coach John Paul

On the game itself:  “I liked our intensity most of the game.  The difference tonight was that we came out hard and ready to go and kept the intensity up.  I didn’t think we played a particularly good defensive first half, but we played a good offensive first half.  We rode pretty well and we cleared well and we were efficient offensively.”

On the change in the second half:  “In the second half we shored up some things defensively, but then got sloppy offensively and got away from what we did well.  We can’t let that happen.  I think it’s still a function of playing a lot of freshman and being impatient some times.  We need to continue to develop consistency.”

On senior goaltender Dan Webbers’ play:  “Webber was on.  He’s a funny guy - a typical goalie.  He has his mood swings and this week he was pretty intense.  It was good though.  He came ready to go today.  He was loose, he saw the ball real well, and was focused.  He was on the whole game.” 

On stepping up after a lackluster performance vs. Eastern Michigan:  “You know, it starts in practice, and we had a great week of practice.  That’s what we talked about.  We didn’t have a good two weeks going into that game and this week we had a really nice week of practice.  I was nervous about this game because I know Colorado is a really good team, but I felt that we were as ready as we were going to be.  I liked the way we went into this game.”

On keeping the team focused through the weekend:  “We told the guys that once again we’re trying to break the season down into little mini-tournaments.  We said after the spring trip that we lost in the championship.  This is another three-game tournament and we just got past the quarters.  Now we need to go out and finish this thing.”

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