The window was open.
Massachusetts men’s lacrosse freshman Nick Mariano converted a feed from the right wing into a dunk over Fairfield senior goalkeeper Jack Murphy for his team’s first goal with 4:35 left until halftime to cut the Stags’ lead to three.
Just over a minute later, junior midfielder Colin McLinden sharply turned and netted a goal on Zach Oliveri’s stick side from five feet out.
The window quickly closed.
McLinden (three goals) as well as senior Eric Warden (three goals) and junior Tristan Sperry (two goals) dictated the offensive pace of the game, leading Fairfield to an 11-5 win over No. 11 UMass at home on Tuesday. The Stags scored on 68 percent of their shot attempts, which helped them carry momentum throughout.
“We stunk up the joint,” UMass coach Greg Cannella said bluntly. “If you’re not ready to play, you’re going to get your (butt) kicked.”
Sperry scored two goals within the game’s opening three minutes. The Minutemen rushed to respond, but Murphy (10 saves) – the reigning ECAC Defensive Player of the Week – turned away every attempt in the quarter.
Freshman attack/midfielder Dave Fleming and Drew Federico made it four unanswered goals before Mariano ended his side’s scoring drought.
UMass (6-2) cut the deficit to three on three separate occasions in the second half on goals from Mariano, freshman midfielder Jeff George and senior attack/midfielder Connor Mooney, but the Stags had an answer for every comeback attempt.
Fairfield (5-2) ended the game with three unanswered goals, which began after Mooney’s late tally.
“To sum it all up, we came out flat,” senior defenseman James Fahey said. “(Fairfield’s scorers) were everything that our coaches said that they were going to be. We didn’t come out with good emotion, mental intensity and good players like those, they’re going to capitalize on that.”
Fahey said that McLinden, Warden and Sperry spread out the defense and were equally talented in shooting and passing.
Fahey insisted that the loss was a learning opportunity for the Minutemen, saying that a lesson in carrying over success – both mentally and physically – from previous weeks was absorbed.
Mariano said Murphy’s consistently clutch goaltending was the most difficult thing for him to overcome. It was a wake-up call.
“You can’t take anything lightly,” Mariano said. He added that the team, himself included, took too much of a lackadaisical mental approach before the game.
Cannella wasn’t shy to credit Fairfield’s zone defense and successful outlet play as factors in the win. The focus now is on Hartford, which will visit Amherst on Saturday.
“The reality (Tuesday) was we got outplayed big time,” Cannella said. “We’ve got to get ourselves ready to play (the next one.)”
Peter Cappiello can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @petecapps.
