Trailing 8-7, entering the final 15 minutes of regulation, the No. 16 Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team was poised for a fourth quarter battle with Drexel on Saturday.
However, the Minutemen weren’t prepared for the attack the Dragons were about to bring them.
UMass allowed five goals in the final quarter of play to fall to Drexel 13-9. It was the Minutemen’s second consecutive loss in conference play.
“When it comes down to it, (Drexel) scored the goals when they needed to and we didn’t,” Connor Mooney said.” “Our defense was making big plays, especially in the third quarter, and the offense couldn’t take advantage of it.”
Drexel (8-4, 3-1 Colonial Athletic Association) opened up the fourth quarter with a trio of goals within the first five minutes from Ryan Belka, Jules Raucci and Nick Trizano. Trizano led all scorers with three goals and an assist. Belka and Raucci each chipped in with a pair of goals for Drexel. Jared Boudreau and Ben McIntosh also scored two apiece.
“Their better players stepped up on the offense end,” said UMass coach Greg Cannella when asked about the fourth quarter. “They had an empty netter and McIntosh really stepped up in the end. When it comes down to it they made the offensive plays that we didn’t.”
Trailing 8-5 in the final minute of the first half, Mooney received a pass from Nick Mariano with 28 seconds left that cut the Dragons lead to just two with an acrobatic finish fromjust outside the cage.
It was Mooney who once again who cut into the Drexel lead just 40 seconds into the third quarter, this time scoring on an assist from Rob Lynott. Mooney led all scorers with five points coming off of three goals and five assists.
Mooney’s goal was the only one scored between either team in the third quarter.
“We barred down and really stuck to our principles in the third quarter,” long stick midfielder Aaron Madaisky said. “In the beginning of the game we were doing our own thing and we weren’t really intense, but in the third quarter we really started doing what our coaches were telling us to do and it worked.”
Freshman attackman Grant Consoletti scored a career high four points on two goals and two assists. Mariano, Jeff George, Grant Whiteway and Sean Cleary each scored one goal in the loss.
Despite outshooting Drexel and causing 18 turnovers, Cannella mentioned that losing the groundball war 31-25 was one of the aspects that hurt the Minutemen on Saturday.
“Our guys really competed today, it wasn’t an intensity thing,” Cannella said. “I wished we got off to a better start in the first half, we let up eight goals. In that third quarter our defense stepped up, but we didn’t score.”
Although UMass (7-4, 1-2 CAA) scored six goals in the first half, both Mooney and Cannella preached that for the Minutemen to be successful in their upcoming games they have to get off to better starts.
“We have to sharpen up our skills a little bit, especially on the offensive end, put together a complete game,” Mooney said. “We’ve played good quarters and good halves, but we really haven’t put together a full game so we have to work on that.”
“We scored a lot of goals early, we defended well in the end but we couldn’t score. You have to put both sides together throughout the entire game to get a win,” Cannella said.
The Minutemen return to action next Saturday on Senior Night in the final home game of the season.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
