Players with familiar jersey numbers were dominant for the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team in an 11-7 win over Vermont, but there are different names on those jerseys for UMass (5-1).
Last year’s Minutemen lacrosse team was headed by No. 1 Mike Tobin and No. 99 Mason Bregman, but with the duo leaving, a new pair toting the same numbers has replaced them. No. 1 Trace Hogan and No. 99 Robbie Granara combined for seven goals in the victory over the Catamounts (2-3).
Entering this season, a big question for this UMass team was where it was going to get its goals from. The year prior, Tobin and Bregman combined for 48 goals, accounting for almost 30 percent of the team’s goals.
Tobin, a graduate student last year, was a five-year player for the Minutemen, scoring 70 goals during his time in Amherst. His ability and leadership were a big part of UMass’ team last season.
Bregman scored 23 goals last season in his second season, playing in every game. After last season, the New Jersey native decided to transfer to Ohio State, the team currently ranked No. 15 in the country.
With those losses, as well as others, like Shane O’Leary (22 goals) and Conor Foley (20 goals), goal scoring was always going to have to come from new faces.
Hogan and Granara have been the ones to answer the call. This season, through just six games, the duo has combined for 31 goals, just 17 away from the total that Tobin and Bregman scored in the entirety of last season. In fact, based on current pace, the new duo is on pace to score 24 more goals over the course of the season than the old pair.
This season, Hogan and Granara account for 35 percent of the team’s shots on goal. Granara had the most shots on goals against Vermont at five, matched by the Catamounts’ Tristan Whitaker, who scored four in the game.
“[Hogan and Granara are] going to get their eight or nine shots in a game,” head coach Greg Cannella said. “So, I hope that they can continue to shoot at a high level, a high percentage, throughout the year.”
Hogan is a graduate transfer from Merrimack, scoring 33 goals in his time there. His third goal against Vermont equaled the tally he scored over the whole season last year, at 16. As well as leading the team in goals this year, Hogan leads the team in assists with 11. His 27 points puts him in a tie for the No. 12 spot in the nation in the category.
“[Hogan is] a calming force,” Cannella said. “He’s not a really excitable guy, but he has been in a lot of different situations. He’s out there as a leader, helping keep Robbie Granara grounded and focused. It’s really, really important to have those guys there, and to use their experience in all kinds of situations.”
Granara scored four goals in the first half against Vermont, marking his sixth straight game with a goal to open up his career as a Minuteman. Granara is a freshman out of Avon Old Farms, and is from Reading, Massachusetts, the same town that Tobin is from. Granara also has two cousins involved in college lacrosse. Finn Granara is a sophomore goalie at Saint Anselm, and Cullen Granara, who is still in high school, but is committed to UMass Lowell, who UMass visits on March 18.
The new No. 1 and No. 99 directly combined for three of the goals against Vermont, with Hogan assisting Granara on three separate occasions. This marks the seventh, eighth and ninth time this season that Granara has scored from a Hogan pass.
Myles Donato can be reached at [email protected].
