With under two-and-a-half minutes to go in the third quarter of Saturday’s game, and the score tied 8-8, Massachusetts men’s lacrosse coach Greg Cannella took a timeout and found himself in an unfamiliar position.
“We’re dealing with a little adversity,” Cannella said, “and it was the first time I yelled at the team in the huddle all year.”
Whatever he yelled worked, as UMass held off a determined Yale comeback to defeat the Bulldogs 12-10 at Garber Field.
UMass improved to 9-1 on the season, while Yale dropped to 7-3.
Chris Fiore was one of four Minutemen to score two goals in the game, and notched the game winner with less than 12 minutes to go.
Fiore streaked down the right side, and Kevin Leveille (two goals, one assist) popped a short pass over to him. Fiore immediately took the feed and fired a 30-foot laser that beat Bulldog goaltender Roy Skeen for the Maroon and White’s 11th goal of the day with 11:47 to go.
The goal gave the Minutemen a final push after the Bulldogs came back from three and four-goal deficits to make what appeared to be a possible runaway UMass victory a tense affair.
At the start of the third quarter, the Minutemen held an 8-4 edge. Ned Britt did a few quick spins to get to the front of the UMass goal, and bounced a shot past Minuteman keeper Bill Schell to start a four-goal run.
Michael Scaglione followed with a man-up goal after UMass sophomore Greg Scott was sent off for one minute. Scott Kenworthy then scored two goals in less than a minute to tie the score at eight, prompting the tongue lashing from Cannella.
After jumping out to an early 3-0 lead, the Minutemen allowed three unanswered Yale tallies before Zywicki put on a couple of jukes and fired a shot to the far top corner, sending the Minutemen on a four-goal streak that took them into the locker room.
“We got real sloppy,” Cannella said. “We were up 7-3, and then we come out in the beginning of the third quarter, up by four, and they tie it, and it’s not because of our defense, it’s because of our offense.”
After UMass came out to a quick three-goal lead to open the game, on goals from Leveille and Neil Lundberg just 38 seconds apart, the Bulldogs answered with three of their own, including tallies by Daniel Brillman and Seth Goldberg that came within the final 15 seconds of the first quarter.
Scaglione opened the second quarter by taking a feed from Goldberg up close and burying it to tie the score at three.
The game was particularly physical, and despite a lack of any “big” hits, there was a lot of choppy play, resulting in coinciding Unnecessary Roughness penalties for Fiore and Yale’s Gregory Naso at the outset of the second half, as well as two slashing penalties on the Bulldogs.
It also provided offensive fireworks, as freshman Steven Byrnes scored the Minutemen’s sixth goal just as he was thrown to the ground by a check.
“Coming in last year, we knew it was going to be really physical,” Cannella said, “and we knew our guys were going to be up for the game. They’re very similar to us, a lot of transition goals. I was hoping 14-10, and it was pretty close.”
The result was what the Minutemen were looking for.
“We’re pretty satisfied,” junior Jeff Zywicki said. “There were a few letdowns, and of course there are some parts of the game we’re not too happy about, but we won, so we’re happy.”
Despite the win, though, there were some concerns on Cannella’s mind, specifically the Maroon and White’s recurring inability to maintain an attack throughout the game.
“If you can’t possess the ball and make plays, the other team is going to take advantage of it, and Yale is too good a team not to take advantage of it,” he said. “Scaglione, Britt, and Kenworthy, those guys can play.”
Added incentive for the Minutemen was the result of the last meeting between the two teams – an 11-9 win for the Bulldogs that ended a nine-game win streak for UMass.
“There was definitely revenge in the back of our minds,” Zywicki said. “The fact that they beat us last year gave us an extra push, and we definitely had a little bit of revenge for that game.”
