March 31, 2006

Event:  Men's Lacrosse

Site:  Ann Arbor, Mich (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Score:  #3 Michigan 13, #11 Minnesota-Duluth 4

Records:  U-M 8-3 (1-0 CCLA), Minnesota Duluth 6-2 (2-0 UMLL)

Next U-M Game:  Saturday, April 1, 7:00 PM - vs. Central Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich., - Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Subs Lead Michigan Past Minnesota - Duluth

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Ann Arbor, Mich. - The #3 University of Michigan men's lacrosse team earned their seventh win in a row and their fourth in a row against a ranked opponent, with a 13-4 win over #11 Minnesota-Duluth on Friday, March 31 in Ann Arbor at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse.  Michigan jumped out to a 5-0 lead through the first quarter and a half, and held on down the stretch.  It was a relatively sloppy game for both sides as the two teams each suffered from poor stick work and lapses of quality play.  Michigan was able to put together brief periods of solid offensive possession, but were never able to get in the groove, so to speak.

The Wolverine youth movement got the Maize and Blue on the board early, with three freshmen helping U-M to a 3-0 lead after one quarter.  Attackmen Aaron Hodari (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Country Day) and Jared Blechman (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) opened the scoring for the Wolverines with two quick goals at 8:56 and 7:38 before fellow freshman attackman Riley Kearns (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) finished off the quarter on a goal from the right wing.  Michigan could have extended their lead even more if it weren't for some quality goaltending from Jacob Launert, who posted nine saves in the first quarter alone. 

Michigan extended their lead mid-way through the second quarter after senior captain and midfielder Jim Constantine (Troy, Mich./Seaholm) scored on the man-up before Blechman added his second of the game moments later at 7:19 to give Michigan the 5-0 lead. 

Duluth was finally able to crack the Wolverines defense with just over two minutes left in the first half, on a high, hard one from junior Chris Fleck.  Michigan immediately responded on sophomore Mark Hammitt's (Madison, NJ/Delbarton - Boston College) first goal of the game as the transfer midfielder continued his solid play as of late.  Hammitt's goal was the final tally of the first half, as Michigan led 6-1 heading into the locker-room. 

Michigan was determined to put the game out of reach immediately coming out of the half-time break, notching two goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter on tallies from junior midfielder Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) and sophomore attackman Thomas Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit). 

Duluth hung tough however, answering with two of their own in the span of 15 seconds midway through the period on goals from Peter Nelson and Casey Mithun to draw slightly closer at 8-3.  The Bulldogs added another just before the quarter break on another tally from Nelson to make of game of it heading into the final frame, as Michigan led 8-4.

After both teams traded a multitude of possessions to open the fourth, the Wolverines got the crucial first goal of the period, extending their lead to 9-4 on sophomore midfielder Bobby Morales' (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) first goal of the game.  Morales snuck a side-arm shot just under the top bar from 10 yards out.  Riley Kearns added his second of the game at 5:54 to further extend the Michigan lead as time whittled down in the fourth.  Michigan added three more goals in the final minutes to pull away.   

Statistically, Michigan won every category, out-shooting UMD 47-11, scooping up 49 groundballs to 32, and winning 15 of 19 faceoffs.  U-M was also more successful in their clears going 22-28 compared to 22-30.  The Wolverines finished two for three on the man-up and were never called for a penalty. 

Michigan will take to the field again tomorrow evening at 7:00pm at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse, as they take on intra-state rival Central Michigan to close out their five-game home stretch.

NOTES

● Lehman and Blechman led all scorers in the contest with two goals and two assists apiece.

● Junior goaltender Ryan Kaufman (Olney, Md./Magruder) finished with five saves in the contest.

● Lehman recorded a career-high four points in the game on two goals and two assists.  His previous high was three points, recorded a number of times, most recently vs. Arizona (March 25).  

● Jared Blechman also recorded his first career four-point game on two goals and two assists besting a previous high of three points, scored most recently vs. Boston College (March 26). 

● With the victory, the Wolverines are now 31-2 since 2002 at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. 

● The Wolverines received balanced scoring on the evening as they have all season long, with nine different Wolverines scoring the 14 goals. 

● Sophomore faceoff specialist Brekan Kohlitz (St. Clair Shores, Mich./Notre Dame Harper Woods) finished the game with a team-high nine groundballs and 13 faceoff wins on 17 draws.  He is now 143 of 203 on the season, for a .704 win percentage.

● The Wolverines were short two of their starting attackman as both Evan Fox (Suffern, NY/Suffern) and Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) have been suffering from injuries lately.  Although Fox dressed, and saw the field very briefly on extra-man, he only contributed one point on an assist.  Eric Rimmke (Portage, Mich./Portage Northern) also missed his first game of the year at his defensive middie position.

● Passing severe thunderstorms kept the fans away as the smallest home crowd in several years attended the game.

QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions of the game:  "It was sloppy.  I think it was sloppy for both teams and I think they'll [Minnesota-Duluth] agree with that.  They didn't look too happy.  I wasn't too happy with the way we played - a lot of dropped passes, a lot of forced passes.  Maybe it was the result of none of our starting attack playing.  We were depending on a lot of freshman tonight.  It just steam-rolled, both teams came out sloppy, and sometimes when both teams are playing like that its hard for one team to pick itself up.  We got a couple good runs in where I thought we got a little going, but we just couldn't sustain them.  We'd just drop a pass or throw it away.  It was just an ugly game."

On the "feel" of the game:  "We had a really light crowd, possibly because of the rain.  But yeah, it did have a weird feel to it.  I thought we were there, I thought we were fairly focused coming in, but that certainly didn't show early on.  I thought we had a lot of guys who played with intensity, but it was more mental - guys pressing and making mistakes."

On who impressed:  "I thought Blechman played pretty well.  No matter what kind of mistakes you've made you can count on him to fly around, get ground balls, ride hard, give you all the effort you want.  Otherwise, nobody really; someone would make a great play and then they'd make a horrible mistake."

On the up-coming game vs. Central:  "We talked immediately following the game how we need to play better everyday, and how today was a big step back for us.  We need to come out and play a lot better tomorrow.  I hope the guys understand that.  I think they wanted to play a lot better also tonight."     

Senior Defenseman, Captain Joe Stelmark

On the game itself:  "We've been talking for two weeks about being complacent at the start, playing down to teams at times, and not coming out with intensity, or urgency.  I think we came out and didn't play too clean or fluid, but we played intense, and that was what kept us in the game.  Today was a stepping stone, but we've got to see what we do in our future games.  We need to come out tomorrow and start out just as hard.  If we don't, we can find ourselves sucked into a nail-biter, and we don't want that."

On the defense starting to click:  "Things are starting to come together.  We are getting this fluency and chemistry that you need.  We're also talking more.  And as long as we keep talking and staying loud, we'll do real well."

Freshman Attackman Riley Kearns

On his performance:  "It was fun to be back on attack.  But I haven't been practicing it or anything.  I think I was a little rusty in the first half, but after that I settled down and felt more comfortable."

On his two goals:  "The first one was a great feed from Tommy Lehman.  He found me right in the crease.  On the second one, I got checked in the face.  I got a little mad and really wanted to score that one and I did."

On the re-shuffled Offense:  "It's a little different right now with Fox and Krauss out.  But it's giving us young guys a chance to get out there and make some plays.  At the beginning of the season some guys had trouble with their confidence, but after playing a lot, and being more comfortable with the plays, we can handle ourselves a lot better out there."

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