Big Blue Blast: Michigan Routs Simon Fraser
from press release
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Michigan men's
lacrosse team put on an impressive show for an overflowing crowd at
Oosterbaan Fieldhouse on Friday night (March 12), dispatching Simon
Fraser by a score of 22-10. Michigan got off to their best
start of the season, scoring seven unanswered to open the game,
with 13 different players eventually registering goals.
Junior attackman Trevor Yealy (Pittsburgh, Penn./Upper St.
Claire) put together another strong performance, tallying five
goals, including three in a row in a three-minute span midway
through the first. Seniors Clark McIntyre (Little Silver,
N.J./Rumson Fair-Haven) and Jordan Kirshner (Ann Arbor,
Mich./Huron) both tied career highs with three and two goals
respectively to help propel Michigan to their fourth win of the
season.
McIntyre got Michigan going quickly, scoring just 22 seconds in on
a feed from fellow senior, captain David Rogers (Wayne, N.J./Wayne
Hills). Senior midfielder Anthony Hrusovsky (Lake Forest,
Ill./Lake Forest) scored from the left wing on a spinning shot at
12:16, followed by senior attackman Kevin Zorovich’s
(Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) lone goal of the night at 10:25 as
Michigan took a 3-0 lead just five minutes into the game.
Kirshner added the first of his two at 6:29 after each team put
together possessions midway through the first. Just seven
seconds later, Yealy started his own mini-run, finishing a pass
from senior faceoff specialist David Reinhard (East Lansing,
Mich./East Lansing) who cleanly won the faceoff, scooped up the
loose ball and fed Yealy right out front for the dip and
dunk.
Yealy then finished on both ends of the special teams, scoring on
the man-up on a feed from senior attackman Josh Ein (Potomac,
MD./Bullis), before registering a man-down goal on the transition
at 3:38. With Michigan leading 7-0, Simon Fraser finally got
on the board at the three-minute mark, followed by two more goals
before the quarter-break to draw within 7-3 while also carrying the
momentum into the second quarter.
Reinhard put an end to that, winning the opening faceoff of the
second and racing down field before firing for his first goal of
the year. Yealy added his third at 12:38, before senior
midfielder Jamison Goldberg (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) cut
across the face of the cage and fired to help Michigan regain the
seven-goal lead with 10:05 left in the first half. Goldberg
was on the other end next time down, feeding Ein for his first of
two goals, as U-M increased their lead to 11-3 at 9:25.
Once again however, the Clan didn’t back down, going on
another three-goal scoring run in a four-minute span midway through
the second. Michigan finally stopped the run with 3:39 left
in the quarter on Kirshner’s second tally of the game before
fellow senior midfielder Michael Bartomioli (Pleasantville,
N.Y./Pleasantville – Providence) scored shortly after for the
13-6 lead. McIntyre finished off the first-half scoring on
the man-up as the Maize and Blue cruised into the half-time
break.
The teams played evenly to open the third, with each team
registering two goals in the first half of the period.
Michigan finally got rolling again with 5:28 left in the quarter on
Yealy’s final tally of the game, before Hrusovsky added his
second and freshman Thomas Paras (Lakewood, Ohio/St. Ignatius) got
in on the action at the :32 mark.
With the Maize and Blue leading 19-8 starting the final frame,
freshman midfielder Willie Steenland (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake
School) scored his first goal as a Wolverine more than seven
minutes into the fourth quarter on a dodge from behind the
cage. Sophomore midfielder Alex Vasileff (Birmingham,
Mich./Seaholm) scored his first career goal 1:30 later to match the
feat, before Ein closed out the Michigan scoring at 6:05. The
Clan scored two late goals as the Wolverines earned the 22-10
decision and their fourth win of the season over a ranked
opponent.
Statistically, Michigan won every category. U-M outshot the
Clan 58-28, and scooped up 64 groundballs compared to 45 by
SFU. U-M was 27 of 37 on faceoffs, and cleared the ball at an
impressive rate, finishing 27 of 29 on clears. Michigan held
Simon Fraser to under %50 on clears (16-33) with a strong
ride. The Maize and Blue scored twice on eight man-up
attempts with SFU scoring once on four attempts.
The Wolverines will travel just outside the outskirts of Ann Arbor
to Ypsilanti to take on Eastern Michigan on Sunday afternoon (March
14) at 12:00pm in Rynearson Stadium on the EMU campus. For
all of your Michigan men’s lacrosse needs, please visit
mgobluelacrosse.com.
NOTES
- Yealy paced the team in total points with his five
goals.
- Kirshner set a career high with four total points
(2-2-4). His previous high was two vs. multiple
opponents.
- Senior faceoff specialist David Reinhard (East Lansing,
Mich./East Lansing) put together another impressive night at the
“X”, winning 22 of 29 faceoffs, while sophomore Edward
Ernst (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) went 3-6 and freshman
Harrison Silver (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay) won both of his
attempts.
- Reinhard also led the team with a season-high 15
groundballs.
- Both junior goaltenders, Mark Stone (Greenwood Village,
Colo./Cherry Creek) and Andrew Fowler (Grosse Pointe,
Mich./Hotchkiss) each saw a half of action. Stone started the
contest and finished with seven saves and seven goals
against. Fowler stopped five shots and allowed three goals in
the second half.
- With the win, Michigan extends their winning streak to 44
games.
- The Wolverines put together their best first quarter of the
season, more than doubling SFU in both shots and groundballs (13-6,
19-7), winning 10-11 faceoffs, clearing the ball perfectly at 5-5
and riding Simon Fraser to 4-9 totals.
- Michigan improves to 1-2 all-time vs. Simon Fraser.
- The Wolverines unveiled their fourth jersey before the game,
a grey design with Maize and Blue accents and tackling.
QUOTES
Head Coach John Paul
On his general impressions: "I think we are
headed in the right direction. I think we played better
tonight than we played in our first three games. We came out
strong which is something we’ve been discussing all
week. We’re still having some lapses and turning the
ball over a bit too much and that is going to limit us in reaching
our full potential. Overall though, I’m happy in the
direction we’re going.”
On slowing them down: “They’re an
explosive team, and you can really see it on the transition.
Their sticks bringing the ball down on the transition are amazing
and it doesn’t matter how you play it. If they’re
coming down on a 3 on 2, they’re probably going to
score. When a team is successful like that in the transition,
it really becomes about what you’re doing at the other end
that is turning the ball over, or what you did wrong on the ride to
give them the transition. It’s when you’re not
executing in other parts of your game that you’re going to
give up those transition attempts.”
On the play of Austin Swaney: “He’s
really starting to show the physical tools that he has and
he’s starting to put that together on the field and
he’s playing more aggressively and confidently so we are
rewarding him with some more time.”
On the goaltender platoon: “We didn’t
think Stone had a bad first half at all, but we could see what
direction the game was going and there isn’t any step down
for us in terms of one goalie to another. We wanted to get
Fowler some shots against a team that would put some pressure on
him and they did.”
On the large crowd: “It’s partly because
of the growth of the game, and it’s great to see all of the
kids because they get a chance to see some great lacrosse.
You can also sense there is more support for us on campus and in
the community because we’re winning and it’s a fun
sport to watch, it’s as simple as that. We just wish we
had a little more room to put them in. You can also sense
that the crowd is into it too. They’re cheering at the
right times and saying the right things and that’s
exciting.”
On the keys to Sunday’s game: “What we
are looking for on Sunday is the younger guys stepping up and
showing us that they are grasping what we are trying to do.
That’s how we are framing it to them. For the team as a
whole, it’s just about coming out in these games and
executing. Sometimes you can get away with certain things you
wouldn’t be able to against a top-10 team, but we really want
to see them executing at a high level. It doesn’t
matter how many goals you score, it makes no difference. All
we want to see is us playing better lacrosse and that’s what
we’re hoping to see on Sunday.”
