February 25, 2007

Site:  Gainesville, Fla. (UVS Field)

Score:  #5 Michigan 12, Florida 6

Records:  U-M (3-0, 1-0 CCLA), Florida (3-1, 3-0 SELC)

Attendance: 155

Next U-M Game:  Wednesday, February 28 at 7:00 p.m. - vs. Florida State (Harkins Field, Tallahassee, Fla.)

Wolverines Take a Bite Out of Gators

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Gainesville, Florida - The #5 ranked University of Michigan men's lacrosse team earned their third victory of the season, defeating the Florida Gators by a score of 12-6 on Sunday, February 25 in Gainesville.  Michigan built a 6-2 halftime lead and held on down the stretch en-route to the victory.

The Wolverines were chomping at the bit after being cooped up in a hotel for three days, and it was evident as U-M opened the scoring just under a minute into the game on a tally from senior Evan Fox (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern).  Fox helped to extend the lead to 2-0 two minutes later on shot from 10 yards out, fed from behind by junior attackman Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central).

After extending their lead on Krauss' first goal of contest, Florida answered back with just under two minutes left in the first quarter.  Although they were leading 3-1 after the first 15 minutes, the Maize and Blue weren't producing the scoring opportunities they were looking for and were settling for perimeter shots with little chance of finding the back of the cage.

After multiple possessions for both squads to open the second, Michigan extended their lead to 4-1 on a rebound goal from junior attackman Thomas Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./Univ. of Detroit Jesuit) who quick-sticked a ball on the ground just outside the crease following an initial shot from Fox.  Fox notched the next U-M goal on an underhand shot three yards out.  Michigan was earning increasingly better attempts as the first half wore down and started finding seams in the Gator defense.

The teams traded two man-up opportunities a piece in the later stages of the second but neither team was able to capitalize.  Instead, the squads exchanged even-strength goals in the final minutes of the half with Mark Hammitt (Madison, N.J./Delbarton - Boston College) notching his lone goal of the game before Florida scored to draw within four at 6-2 as the teams headed into half-time.

The Gators drew first blood in the third quarter notching the first two goals to close the gap to 6-4.  Michigan responded behind the efforts of sophomore Peter Vasher (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) as the second-year player buried a shot off a dodge on the right side while fellow sophomore Wes McGowan (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) notched his first of the game shortly after, cutting across the face of the goal and firing back-side to slow the Gator momentum and give Michigan the four-goal lead once again at 8-4.  The teams traded goals to finish off the third quarter scoring as Michigan took a 9-5 lead into the final frame. 

Once again, Florida opened the scoring in the quarter, burying a chance just outside the crease, drawing within three at 9-6 with 10:17 left in the game.  Junior Doug Bell (Troy, Mich./Troy) was called for a random stick check immediately following the goal and the Gators were awarded a three-minute un-releasable penalty.

UF lost possession quickly, however, as the Wolverines kept up the pressure and eventually buried a shot of their own from Krauss on the man-down.  Soon after, Florida was called for their own penalty, evening things up before Michigan scored again on another tally from Krauss to build the lead to 11-6 with just over seven minutes remaining.  Senior captain Matt Hudson (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) finished off the scoring in the contest with just over four minutes left in the game.

Statistically, Michigan won nearly every category, out-shooting their opponent 31-23 and grabbing 50 groundballs to Florida's 29.  U-M won 11 of 20 faceoffs, and cleared the ball at a rate of 29-35 while UF was 22-28.  The Wolverines were 1-4 on the man-up and held the Gators scoreless on three attempts.  Michigan did commit a high number of turnovers however with 30 while Florida finished with 18. 

The Wolverines will be back in action on Wednesday, February 28 when they take on #9 Florida State at 7:00pm EST in Tallahassee.

NOTES

● Junior faceoff specialist Brekan Kohlitz (St. Claire Shores, Mich./Notre Dame Harper Woods) finished 3-7 at the "X" while his counterpart, and fellow junior Lawrence Okwali (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) was 8-13.  Third in line, freshman David Reinhard (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) did not play due to illness.

● Okwali and junior long-stick midfielder Alex Martusciewicz (Troy, Mich./Troy) both finished with a team high seven groundballs.

● Ryan Kaufman (Olney, Md./Magruder) put together another solid effort, stopping 10 shots in total, including four in the crucial third quarter.

● Peter Krauss and Evan Fox each led the team with five total points, scoring three goals and two assists.  Krauss' five points ties a career-high set multiple times.

● The game-time was moved from 4:00pm EST to 1:00pm EST due to the expected arrival of inclement weather.  The weather held off and was never an issue. 

QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On the game itself:  "Obviously we need to win games on the road, and we got that done.  But we're not too happy with the way we played today.  That surprises me because we've had some excellent practices down here but today we were way too sloppy and it didn't seem like our heads were in it.  We started in a funk and couldn't get out of it the entire game.  We've been playing team lacrosse so well lately but today was just different for some reason."

On the play of Martusciewicz:  "You're always going get a lot of energy and effort out of him and we want him to play aggressively, which he did."

On the play of Kaufman:  "Kaufman played a really solid game and made a couple of really nice saves.  Our defense wasn't helping him much today."

On the troubles offensively:  "Simple execution was a problem; just passing and catching the ball.  We were able to set up and do what we wanted to do but we were out of sync in general.  We were pressing a little and taking bad shots as well.  I don't how many times we went stick-side on this goalie."

On killing the three-minute unreleasable penalty:  "I wouldn't call it a turning point because we still had a three-goal lead, but it could have been one for them.  Obviously our man-down made a play to hold the ball for a while, and you don't want to go to the goal in those situations unless it's a sure thing, but Peter (Krauss) had a good chance and I wasn't upset with that at all."

On looking forward to Florida State:  "I don't want these guys to have any sense of satisfaction after a game like this.  I want these guys to be upset about the way we played.  I heard some guys talking about how we were able to "get it done" in the end, but we shouldn't be looking to "get it done".  We're about excellence and domination and we were so far from that today.  We need to be hungry when we come out against Florida State.  We'll see how practice goes tomorrow."

Junior long-stick midfielder Alex Martusciewicz

On his efforts:  "The coaches have stressing for me to play hard and play aggressive, and I wasn't the only guy picking up those loose balls.  As soon it goes down we've got everyone there, and it was a really team effort.  I'm just trying to do my job."

On what needs improvement vs. Florida State:  "There needs to be a big leap in our play for this next game, there is no doubt about that.  We're going to start to get tested, and yeah, the scoreboard says we won by six goals, but if you were here today, you'd notice this isn't the kind of game Michigan Lacrosse wants to play.  When we play on Wednesday we're all going to have to step it up."

Junior attackman Peter Krauss

On his man-down goal:  "The whole situation was working out really well for us.  We were able to keep getting fresh legs on almost every 20 seconds, and when it came to my turn I got a little lucky as the two guys guarding me sort of ran into each other and that sprang me free and I had an open path to the goal.  That's my first man-down goal ever in all my time playing lacrosse.  It's good to have a situation like that early in the season because we had a little adversity and we came together."

On what was lacking today:  "I think we could have been a little hungrier in certain aspects.  We're not a flashy team, scoring amazing goals all the time.  Our game is about getting to those groundballs, hustling on every ride, knocking down passes - doing the little things.  That's how we play usually and I'm not sure we were doing that today.  We're a blue-collar team that wants to outwork our opponent and wear them down.  When we play like that, the goals are going to come." 

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