The early season success on the road for the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team carried over to Garber Field yesterday afternoon, as UMass produced a dominating 17-7 win over Albany.
Attackers Art Kell and Kyle Smith led the Minutemen (5-0) with three goals and two assists apiece. Similarly, Steve D’Amario (two goals, one assist), Colin Fleming (one goal, two assists), Anthony Biscardi (two goals), Will Manny (two goals) and Sean Cleary (two goals) all had multiple-point games.
It was as balanced a scoring effort as UMass has had all season.
“That’s what we’ve been stressing we need more people to contribute and we’ve been shooting really well,” said Manny.
The Minutemen got the scoring going just one minute, 21 seconds into the contest on a goal by Biscardi, with Fleming providing the helper.
Biscardi added his second goal at the 8:21 mark, when he ripped a rocket shot past Great Danes goalie John Carroll. UMass regained possession immediately because of a late hit on Albany’s Doug Eich.
Albany would pay for the penalty as Kell scored just 13 seconds later, with Smith assisting.
The early onslaught continued as D’Amario outran the defense and tucked a shot into the top shelf past Carroll to give his team a 4-0 lead, halfway through the first quarter.
Things then got ugly. Following a few late hits by Albany, UMass’ Greg Rushing delivered a crushing blow on Great Danes defender Cody Futia, a hit that the referees deemed to be egregious. Rushing was forced to serve a two-minute penalty for unnecessary roughness.
“Every game we want to dictate [the physicality], and we were able to do that early in the game,” sad UMass coach Greg Cannella.
Despite being a man-down, Kell scored once again and extended the lead to 5-0.
Albany finally got on the scoreboard when Lyle Thompson hooked up with Joe Resetarits, who snuck the first shot of the game past Minutemen goalkeeper Tim McCormack.
UMass dominated the first quarter despite a quiet first 15 minutes from leading-scorer Will Manny. The Minutemen out shot the Great Danes, 14-7.
“We came out flying in the first quarter, and we said that the first quarter was going to determine this game,” said Manny.
D’Amario kicked off the second quarter by scoring his second goal of the game. It was a mirror image of his first goal as he again beat Carroll top shelf.
After a prolonged scoring drought for both teams, Kyle Smith made the score 7-1, on an assist from D’Amario.
The Minutemen then earned a man-up opportunity and took advantage as Kell tallied his third goal on a feed from Smith.
UMass continued to pour it on as Smith and Kell again hooked up, with Smith recording the goal this time and Kell earning the assist.
Lyle Thompson stopped the bleeding for Albany with a goal to make the score 9-2, with just under two minutes remaining in the half.
However, the Minutemen answered before the end of the half with their 10th goal of the game. Cleary was the goal scorer, as the freshman netted his first goal of his collegiate career, making the halftime score 10-2 in UMass’ favor.
At the end of the half, the statistics – and scoreboard – revealed the complete and total domination the first half was. They held sizable advantages in shots (29-10), ground balls (21-7) and faceoffs won (12-1).
Albany picked up the first goal of the second half as Miles Thompson scored on a man-up advantage. But just seconds later, Manny finally found the scoreboard and pushed the lead back to eight.
Joe Resetaris picked up his second goal of the game for the Great Danes at the 8:13 mark when he recovered a loose ball in front of the goal crease and easily put the shot past McCormack.
However, the seven-goal deficit would be the closest the Great Danes would get for the remainder of the game.
The Minutemen outscored Albany 6-2 for the remaining quarter-and-a-half.
Freshmen Robert Lynott and Cleary each scored a goal during this final run, much to the delight of their teammates and coach.
“Those guys, Cleary and Lynott, they work hard all week, and they don’t get much playing time so for them to score the ball is awesome,” said Biscardi.
“It’s always great to see that, those guys work so hard in practice, not only in getting themselves better, but preparing our team and making our team better,” said Cannella.
The Minutemen now look to improve their perfect record to 6-0 when they host Hartford at Garber Field on Saturday.
Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Alexander.
