The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team shut down NJIT to earn its third straight victory on Saturday afternoon. The Minutemen (3-1) defense suffocated the Highlanders (0-2) to cruise to the 12-4 win at Garber Field. UMass held NJIT scoreless in the first half, the first time it had held a team scoreless in two consecutive quarters since March 2019 in a 16-2 win over Utah.
“Our guys were playing together, we’ve done a good job,” head coach Greg Cannella said. “Noah Fossner, who coaches the [defense], has done an excellent job bringing those guys around. We played physical and our short sticks are playing pretty good defense right now and that’s really the key.”
After locking down the Highlanders in the first half and leading 5-0 at the break, UMass put together a 5-1 third quarter to put the game completely out of reach for NJIT. Robbie Granara and Trace Hogan both led the Minutemen in scoring on Saturday, posting a hat trick apiece. Granara, who also had an assist in the game, did all of his goal scoring damage in the third quarter and helped to put the game firmly in the win column for UMass.
“If you’re going to be a successful offense group, you need your attack to score, [Hogan and Granara] did that,” Cannella said. “[Aiden Drunsic] too, [Drunsic] was a little bit hamstrung, the goalie made a couple good saves on him, hit the post one time. Their production needs to continue if we’re going to be successful on the offensive end.”
Granara got UMass started in the third quarter with the goal that put the Gorillas up 6-0. On the play, John Krisch set up Granara after his defender appeared to leave him to double Krisch. Granara slipped free, got in position, and buried the easy shot in front of the cage.
By the time Granara was done wreaking havoc on the Highlanders, his third goal of the quarter put UMass up by a commanding 10-1 advantage. On his final goal of the game, the Minutemen defense helped lead to the opportunity for Granara. After NJIT failed to clear the ball within the allotted 20 seconds, leading to a violation, UMass quickly capitalized. Zach Auble sent a pass to Granara, who raced down the field and bounced in his hat trick-sealing third goal.
Apart from the starting attack unit of Granara, Hogan and Drunsic, the Minutemen offense received contributions from several other players. In addition to those three, Charles Kurtz, Matthew Cargiulo, Brian Jackman and Auble got on the board. Jackman, who scored his first two goals of the season, also recorded a career-high in goal scoring with his double on Saturday.
After holding Quinnipiac to five goals and Dartmouth to seven goals in their two previous outings, the Minutemen continued their defensive excellence. Freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger led the effort with a 13-save day and an 86.7 percent save percentage.
On the occasions when the Highlanders were granted opportunities due to penalties, Salanger and the defense held strong, holding NJIT scoreless and 0-of-5 on man-up opportunities.
“Good performance, we weren’t great [on man-down] this week, the two days previous Thursday and Friday we weren’t great there preparing for man-down,” Cannella said. “Our extra man unit [and our] scout did a really good job in practice to lift those guys up a little bit, kind of grab their attention a little bit better on Friday.”
The Minutemen will head on the road for the first time this season to face off against UAlbany in their next game on Saturday, March 1. Face-off in Albany is scheduled for 12 p.m.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
