March 26, 2005                                                                     

Event:  Men’s Lacrosse

Site: Ann Arbor, Michigan (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Score: #5 Michigan 8, #11 Oregon 7

Records: UM (6-2, 1-0 CCLA), Oregon (6-3, 2-1 PNCLL)

Next U-M Game: Sunday, March 27, 3:00pm – vs. Florida (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 #11 Oregon by a score of 8-7 in front of 245 fans in each team’s second game of the Michigan Invitational on Saturday, March 26 at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor.  Trailing by a score of 7-4, entering the final frame, Oregon clawed back in the fourth quarter outscoring the Wolverines 3-1 and forced overtime.  Michigan found a way to win however as freshman Evan Fox (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) notched his third goal of the game with just 34 seconds left in overtime to lift the Maize and Blue to their sixth win of the season.

The Wolverines opened the scoring mid-way through the first period on a blast from senior Mike O’Leary (St. Louis, MO./Clayton) from the top right side.  O’Leary was assisted on the play by the team’s leading scorer, Evan Fox.  Oregon answered back quickly though, just over a minute later on a goal from Daniel Ernst from the top of the circle to knot the game up at 1-1.  Neither team was able to capitalize for the remainder of the first quarter and the teams entered the second frame tied at 1-1.

Oregon struck first in the second, scoring a goal down low Daniel Ernst, his second of the game at that point.  Trailing 2-1, the Wolverines evened the game at 2-2 on a man-up goal from Fox who was assisted from behind the net by senior captain Ryan Clark (Summit, N.J./Summit) at the 9:04 mark of the second period.  Michigan grabbed their second lead of the game with just over 3:00 left in the half on a man-up goal from freshman Tom Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit).  Lehman was attempting to pass the ball across the crease when Oregon goaltender Nathan Cordova attempted to cut off the pass and ended up redirecting it into his own goal.

Oregon answered with just seconds left in the first half on a goal from Matt Conners to tie the game at 3-3 entering the locker-room.  Coming out of the half, Oregon scored first, grabbing the 4-3 lead four minutes into the period at 11:04 on a goal from Darryl Schuitevoerder who was right on top of senior goaltender Dan Webber (Weston, Mass./Weston). 

The Wolverines found a way to answer, five minutes later at 6:31 on a transition goal from Ryan Clark.  The play started as senior long-stick midfielder David Silverman (Potomac, Md./Churchill) scooped up a loose-ball at midfield and fed freshman Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) who was darting up the left side.  Krauss switched the field on a pass to Clark who was streaking in on the right side.  Clark received the pass and dodged deep into the zone and fired a high shot that found its way just inside the post to tie the game at 4-4.

Michigan earned the ensuing possession and set up shop in Duck territory and found an open Jim Constantine (Troy, Mich./Seaholm) 10 yards out at the top of the zone.  Constantine quickly released the shot and beat Cordova over his right shoulder to give Michigan its first lead since the first half.  The Wolverines didn’t slow up, extending their lead to 6-4 on Evan Fox’s second goal of the game at 2:00 minutes even, and then found the back of the net again 40 seconds later at 1:21 on a wrap-around goal from Ryan Clark to push the lead to 7-4 entering the final frame. 

Oregon didn’t shy away from the challenge however, and came out firing in the last period of play, netting a quick goal at 13:34 and following up with another at 7:35 to draw within one at 7-6.  After multiple possessions for both teams, Oregon was able to knot the game up at 7-7 with 3:19 remaining on a goal from Schuitevoerder right outside the crease on a breakdown in front.    

Michigan controlled possession for the remainder of the game, firing numerous shots wide of the net in their attempt to grab the lead for the final time.  The Wolverines eventually called a timeout with: 51 remaining to set up their offense but on the ensuing possession the Maize and Blue were unable to score, and the two teams went to a four-minute over-time period.

Oregon won the first faceoff of the overtime but eventually turned the ball over leading to a Michigan clear attempt.  The Wolverines weren’t able to set up possession and subsequently turned the ball back over to the Ducks with two minutes remaining in the overtime.  Oregon was able to muster quality chances, but senior goaltender Dan Webber was up to the job and kept the Wolverines in the game.  Michigan was eventually able to earn possession and move the ball up-field after an excellent clearing pass from Webber to senior defenseman Mike Roth (South Orange, N.J./Montclair Kimberly).  Roth found an open Clark on the right wing who reversed fields to Evan Fox, who was streaking in on the left wing.  Fox received the pass and was able to fire a shot that squirted its way just inside the left post to give the Wolverines an 8-7 overtime victory, and their second win over a top-15 opponent in as many nights. 

Statistically, the Wolverines won every category except for the man-up totals.  U-M finished the game with 45 shots to Oregon’s 18 and scooped up 34 groundballs to 29.  Michigan won 11-19 faceoffs, and cleared the ball at a rate of 17-24, with Oregon posting 16-26 totals.  The Maize and Blue finished 2-6 on the man-up while Oregon scored once on two opportunities.  Dan Webber finished the night with seven saves, while Nathan Cordova stopped 12 shots. 

Michigan will take to the field in the final game of the Michigan Invitational, on Sunday, March 27, at 3:00pm vs. Florida at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor.  In the day’s earlier action, #7 Colorado will take on #11 Oregon at Noon.

NOTES

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

●  The teams’ leading point-man in ’05, freshman attackman Evan Fox (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) finished with a team-tying high 3-1-4 to extend his point total to 19-12-31.

●  Ryan Clark continued to work his way back into the line-up on Saturday after struggling through a knee injury earlier in the season.  Clark finished with 2-2-4, tied with Evan Fox for the game-high in points.  With the four-point effort, Clark moved into second on the team’s point total list with 9-8-17.

●  This was Michigan’s fourth victory against a ranked team this season.  Michigan defeated #18 Missouri in the season opener, #7 Arizona on March 2, #7 Colorado on March 25 and #11 Oregon, tonight, March 27.

●  After missing the first five games of the regular season, Jim Constantine has recorded a point in every game since his return, with a goal vs. Oregon.  Constantine had posted two three point games previous to tonight’s action.  Last week vs. Eastern Michigan, Constantine finished with 2-1-3, while last night vs. Colorado, he finished with 1-2-3.

●  The Wolverines last over-time game was a 12-11 double-overtime loss to Oakland in the CCLA semi-finals in 2004.  The loss broke Michigan’s 56-game conference winning streak.

QUOTES

U-M Head Coach John Paul

On the game itself:  “Oregon really came to play.  I have to give them a lot of credit.  They played an outstanding game and worked their butts off.  This one came down to the wire.  I don’t think we were really doing anything drastically wrong.  We shot very poorly, but it was really just a great game between two very good teams.  I don’t think we came out flat, but obviously we weren’t as hot as we were last night.  Even in the third quarter when we kind of took over they didn’t quit at all.  They gave us their best shot.  Fortunately, we had an answer in overtime.”

On who impressed:  “I thought Webber had another good game.  He came up with some clutch saves, especially at the end there.  They had a couple of potential game winners there at the end, including one on the doorstep and that one was huge.  As usual David Silverman continues to be an absolute dominant player on the field.  He has worked so hard in the past two summers on his speed and it shows.

On the play of the young offense:  “I love the fight we have on offense.  Bobby Morales is a warrior every game.  He works as hard as anybody can work.  Peter Krauss was there for us at the end.  We’re giving the ball to a freshman at the end of the game so that tells a lot about the type of kid he is.  And Evan Fox is playing pretty banged up and was struggling with just moving.  We weren't even sure how much he could play tonight, but he was there at the end of the game for us.”

Senior Captain/Attackman Ryan Clark

On the play of the offense:  “They came out flying and we weren’t ready for it.  I give them a ton of credit for that.  Our offense was pretty back and forth, hot and cold.  We know we can’t do that though, and we just have to stay on top of it and stay focused.” 

On winning the hypothetical “Final” tomorrow:  “After tonight’s game we have no choice but to come out tomorrow and start off well.  We can’t keep playing in these close games because we know it could go either way in these situations.  This definitely could have been Oregon’s game and we know that so we can’t let Florida even get in the game tomorrow.” 

Freshman Attackman Evan Fox

On the game-winning goal:  “We had a good clear to start with on the right side because of the defense.  They got the ball to Clark and their defense began to break down.  His guy slid up field so my guy went over to him.  He made an excellent pass across and somehow I shot it and it went in.”

Senior Defenseman Mike Roth

On the play of the defense:  “I felt like we were a bit tentative out there at first.  Everyone was sort of just waiting for something to happen, to just spark us.  Yesterday we got those four goals really quickly and that got us going and then we weren’t really thinking about making mistakes, we were just playing out there and staying loose.  Tonight they didn’t really come early and I think we got a little tight.”

On playing an early game tomorrow:  “I kind of like playing a day game.  Just waking up and getting ready to play and not having to think about it all day and just getting right at it.  I think we should be loose tomorrow.  Winning this game tonight like this should give us a little kick in the butt.  We just need to stay aggressive and get after the loose balls.”

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