The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team never threatened to take control in its game against Brown, falling 18-12 Saturday afternoon at McGuirk Stadium.
Combining for 14-of-18 team goals, the Bears’ (2-0) trio of Dylan Molloy, Henry Blynn and Kylor Bellistri could not be stopped by the Minutemen, who are now winless in their first four games of the season.
“It was a similar pattern to what we’ve had throughout the year here, even in the Harvard game when we were up most of the game,” UMass coach Greg Cannella said after the game. “(Brown) took it to us early. We knew they were gonna play early offense and it seemed like we could not string plays together again.
“Guys are disappointed, they gave a great effort, we fought back to three goals but that was kind of it.”
Cannella recognized the back-and-forth play between the teams, with both sides trading goals on a consistent basis during the final three quarters.
“We’d make a good play and then, boom, they score,” he said. “The first quarter really hurt us, other than that it’s a two-goal game. Give them a lot of credit, they took it to us and their attack had a great day.”
The struggles began early for the Minutemen, who allowed the first five goals of the game to dig themselves an inescapable deficit. Molloy exploded for seven scores while Blynn added four and Bellistri recorded a hat trick.
Once the three attackers found their strides, Cannella acknowledged that it would be difficult to contain them.
“(Molloy) ran our guy over two or three times,” he said. “He’s a big, strong kid and went hard at it. (Blynn) scored from way outside the box. We’re a man-down we make a save and turn the ball over and the ball is in the back of the net.
“Those guys have a great, quick release on their shots and overall are excellent players.”
For UMass offensively, freshman Peter Lindley and senior Grant Whiteway each recorded hat tricks. For Whiteway, it was his first game of the season after being injured and he said he was relieved to be back in the lineup.
“It was awesome to get back out there,” Whiteway said.
“He’s a senior and there was a sense of urgency for (Grant),” Cannella added. “You could see how fired up he was to get back out there and contribute to the team. Lacrosse means a lot to him, and when he’s out hurt he feels he’s not giving anything to the team, so we’re thrilled to have him back.”
After allowing four goals, junior goalie Zach Oliveri was pulled in favor of sophomore D.J. Smith. Following the game, Cannella said the backup did the best he could against a powerful offensive attack.
“That’s what we’re asking our goalies to do, to hang in,” Cannella said. “You’re not gonna always make the one-on-one saves or the ones inside, but saving the ones from the outside is important and he hung in.”
Now four games into the season, Cannella said the excuse of his team being young is “out the door.”
“Not much,” Cannella said when asked what his team could take from its latest defeat. “I’m not gonna make excuses for anybody. These guys are here, they’re Division I lacrosse player, they’re expected to play at a high level and we just need to play at a higher level.
“They work hard, they come to work each day during the week. We’re just not getting it done.”
UMass will be back in action next Saturday in search of its first win of 2015 when it takes on No. 7 Albany.
Jason Kates can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Jason_Kates.
