March 14, 2008

Event:  Men's Lacrosse

Site: Mt. Pleasant, Mich.  (IAC)

Score:  #1 Michigan 13, Central Michigan 0

Records:  U-M (6-0, 1-0 CCLA), CMU (0-2, 0-1 CCLA)

Next U-M Game:  Friday, March 21, 2008, 8:00pm EST - vs. Oakland University - Ann Arbor, Mich. (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)

Wolverines Blank Chippewas 13-0

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Mt. Pleasant, Mich. - The University of Michigan men's lacrosse team put on another solid road performance on Friday night (March 14) in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, defeating CCLA conference opponent Central Michigan by a score of 13-0.  The Wolverines jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter, and kept up the defensive pressure and timely goaltending throughout the contest en-route to their sixth win of the season. 

Michigan opened the scoring in the first period on a feed from sophomore Jamie Goldberg (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) that found sophomore transfer Kevin Zorovich (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa - Marist) open on the right wing.  Zorovich buried the goal, followed by a tally from senior Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central)  to give Michigan the early two-goal lead. 

Sophomore Josh Ein (Potomac, Md./Bullis) fed freshman Trevor Yealy (Upper St. Claire, Penn./Upper St. Claire) wide open outside the crease as the Wolverines continued to shine early on, leading 3-0 after seven minutes.  CMU earned their first solid possession following a Michigan off-side call resulting in a 30-second man-up opportunity, but the Wolverines were solid in their kill, denying the Chippewas any shots on goal. 

Michigan made it 4-0 late in the first quarter on another quick-stick tally from Yealy from outside the crease, this time assisted on the play by Krauss. 

A sloppy start to the second quarter for both teams resulted in a rash of penalties for each squad but the Wolverines eventually made it 5-0 on Alex Beltrani's (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville - Marist) second goal of the season followed by Yealy's third of the game.  U-M closed out the first-half scoring on the man-down, as senior Doug Bell (Troy, Mich./Troy) was fed by junior defenseman Zach Elyacher (Upper Saddle River, N.J./Upper Highlands) on the transition.

Michigan continued to roll through the ranks in the third quarter as freshman goaltender Andrew Fowler (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Hotchkiss) saw action starting the period.  Michigan opened the scoring in the quarter as Doug Bell added his second of the game on a feed from Krauss following a three-man man-down opportunity for CMU that U-M had no trouble killing off. 

Sophomore Svet Tintchev (Rockville, Md./Bullis)  notched his first goal of the season in the third quarter, accepting a feed from Jamie Goldberg and scorching a shot high over the goaltender's right shoulder.

Michigan notched two highlight-reel goals to open the fourth quarter, opening with long-pole Zach Elyacher notching his second career goal on a rocket that snuck just inside the left post, followed by senior captain Mark Hammitt (Madison, N.J./Delbarton - Boston College) finishing on the transition after being fed by goaltender Andrew Fowler who carried the ball across mid-field on a Wolverine clear attempt. 

The Wolverine defense held tough down the stretch, and Josh Ein and Trevor Yealy each added an additional goal as the Maize and Blue earned their fifth road win of the season, and their first against conference competition. 

Statistically, the Wolverines dominated every category.  U-M outshot their opponent 38-20, and recorded 52 groundballs to the Chippewas' 14.  U-M was 15-17 on faceoffs, and finished 18-20 on clears, while CMU struggled to clear the ball at a rate of 10-31.  Michigan finished 5-6 on the man-up, while holding Central Michigan scoreless on all nine attempts.

The Wolverines will be back in action next Friday, March 21, when they return home for their first game at Oosterbaan in over a month as they battle CCLA opponent Oakland University in Ann Arbor, at 8:00pm EST.

NOTES

● Senior captain and faceoff specialist Brekan Kohlitz (St. Claire Shores, Mich./Notre Dame Harper Woods) finished a perfect eight for eight on faceoffs while sophomore David Reinhard (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) won seven of his nine attempts.

● Kohlitz also paced the team with seven groundballs to add to his team-leading 44.

● The Wolverines featured another spread scoring attack, with nine players scoring goals, including Trevor Yealy who notched his team-leading 14^th goal of the season with four total tallies on the night. 

● Elyacher's two-point night marks his first career multi-point game.   

● With their dominant performance on special teams (5 for 6 on the man-up while holding CMU to 0-9), Michigan is now 20 for 32 on the man-up and has held opponents to only six goals on 26 attempts.

● Michigan improves to 5-0 all-time vs. Central Michigan. 

● Every healthy Wolverine saw action in the contest besides the third and fourth string goaltenders.  A total of seven players sat out to rest injuries.

● This was the Wolverines' first shutout since the 2005 season when they blanked Miami (Ohio) by a score of 16-0 on April 9.

QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions:  "I was really disappointed in our focus tonight.  Our effort was there, but I don't think our focus was.  We rode well and we got most of the groundballs, but all week we talked about execution and it just wasn't there tonight.  Our offense was throwing balls away all night, and they haven't completely clicked all year.  We are really concerned about the number of unforced errors.  We had trouble simply running the correct play and being in the correct position.  For the most part we're running a very simple offensive system, so there is no excuse for a lot of this to be happening.  Guys don't need game experience to run what we're running.  This is an important stretch for us because we want to continue to get better and tonight was a step back for us."

On the defensive effort:  "I think we played well for the most part.  Fowler was outstanding in the second half and I was happy to get him the whole second half.  We will be working the other goaltenders in throughout the next couple of weeks.  Overall our defense played well tonight but they didn't pressured all that often because our ride was so successful.  We'd get it down on offense, take a poor shot or throw it away, but our ride was doing such a good job that they were never able to settle.  It was hard for our defense to get into any type of flow."

On finally returning home next weekend:  "Home games have been few and far between this year and with UCLA cancelling, we'll only have four total.  It will be nice to have this weekend as well and let the guys rest a little.  This is the first time in a month we've been home for an entire weekend."

On next week's practice:  "Monday we'll be back focusing on fundamentals, and according to the captains we're going to be running for all of our unforced errors in the second half.  We counted 10 so they'll be running a bit.  Tuesday will be an offense only practice and we'll run a lot of skelly stuff so there shouldn't be any excuse for not knowing the offense.  We have some problems we need to clean up and we need to get these guys focused and energized no matter what the situation is.  We need to be ready to play no matter what."     

Freshman Andrew Fowler

On getting a chance to play an entire half:  "It was good to get the good start from Graham and to come in and follow him well.  We didn't see a lot of pressure but I focused on keeping that score down and getting the ball back into the hands of our offense."

On staying focused despite a lack of action:  "Even in those kinds of situations, it's important to communicate with my defense and stay focused.  I wanted to keep us in the game and composed at all times regardless of the situation."

On his near-assist on the clear:  "Whenever we were clearing the ball the guys were doing a great job of getting open.  On the late clear, I felt the pressure coming behind me, and I had a lane so I just took off.  I saw Hammitt coming at me for the pass and I fed him, but unfortunately he took too many steps before he scored for me to get an assist.  I was pretty pumped up anyways though."

Sophomore David Reinhard

On his effort:  "It was good to be able to get in and get some consistent runs.  Brekan has been playing so well lately that he's never coming off so it was nice tonight to get some significant action.  It's been awhile, but I felt good out there tonight." 

On working in a number of players:  "We wanted to play well and put them away because we wanted to get a lot of guys in tonight.  That was important for us to get a lot of guys some solid action so we needed to keep our focus and play well as entire team.  We had some struggles though, and it's something we definitely need to work on.  We know we have the skills to cut down on the unforced errors, and it's just a matter of doing all of the little things well and it will all come together."

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