In its final regular season game of the year, the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team lost at High Point, 17-10 on Friday afternoon. The loss puts UMass (6-7, 2-3 Atlantic 10) as the fourth seed in the upcoming A-10 lacrosse tournament hosted at Garber Field.
The Minutemen trailed from start to finish against offensively potent High Point (9-6, 3-2 A-10). The Panthers dominated the start of the game, leading 6-0 after the first quarter. The opening punch from High Point was ultimately too much for the Gorillas despite a strong comeback push late.
UMass started the fourth quarter with four consecutive goals to trim the Panthers lead to three with 10 minutes remaining, but the Panthers responded with four consecutive of their own to put the game away for good.
The Minutemen got to work early in the fourth quarter to try and cut down the High Point lead. UMass has been no stranger to come backs in A-10 play this season, coming back from six goals down in the fourth quarter to beat Hobart earlier in the season and coming within two of Richmond last week after trailing by five late in the game.
Shane O’Leary connected on a shot as he was falling down, scoring 49 seconds into the final frame. After a save by goalkeeper Matt Knote, UMass aggressively pushed up the field and Jimmy Elliott threw a pass ahead to a streaking Matt Caddigan who finished the goal and trimmed the deficit to five. With 10 minutes left, Mike Tobin fired a shot into the net off a beautiful spin-move cutting the Panthers lead to three.
Offensively, Mike Tobin, Matthew Cargiulo and Connor Foley each recorded two tallies for UMass. Freshman Zack Waxman scored his first career goal in the fourth quarter off an assist from Grant Breyo.
After the UMass spurt, High Point dealt a lethal four goal response over the course of about two and a half minutes in the fourth quarter to secure the win. High Point had a balanced scoring attack with nine players getting into the scoring column. Jack VanOverbeke and midseason All-American Brayden Mayea each recorded hat tricks in the game for the Panthers.
Knote and the defense had trouble all day against the strong offense of High Point. Coming into the game the Panthers were ranked 16th in the country in scoring offense out of 73 Division I teams, averaging 13.36 goals per game. Against the Minutemen they showed off their scoring prowess, forcing UMass to allow a season-high 17 goals. Knote, an All-American goalkeeper last year, was held to a 0.429 save percentage, his third lowest of the season.
It was an overall complete game for High Point, who won the face-off battle 17-14, led UMass in ground balls 34-29, and caused nine turnovers.
The Minutemen return to the field for the A-10 tournament at Garber Field on Thursday, May 2 against either Richmond or Saint Joseph’s. Face-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
