A chaotic and frantic finish unfolded in the final minutes of the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team’s regular season finale against Hobart on Friday. Needing a win to guarantee themselves a spot in the Atlantic 10 tournament, the Minutemen (9-5, 2-3 A-10) fell short and lost to the Statesmen (5-9, 2-3 A-10), 16-15. The Minutemen ultimately qualified for the conference tournament, despite the loss.
After putting up 26 goals in a home win over St. Bonaventure, Hobart traveled to Amherst and dropped 16 goals on UMass. The 16 goals tie the most that the Minutemen defense has given up in a game this season.
“Not the kind of game that we want to play honestly,” head coach Greg Cannella said. “We weren’t able to defend them. Credit to them, they were slinging the ball, [and] they shot the ball well. We didn’t do a great job defending, that’s on me.”
Jimmy Elliott scored the goal with 1:07 remaining that brought UMass to within one of the Statesmen after an out of bounds turnover by John Jude Considine seconds earlier. Trace Hogan had his initial shot saved but Elliott was right there to clean it up and give the Minutemen a serious chance at tying the game in the final minute.
In the final minute of the game, Hobart gave UMass two opportunities to tie the game, thanks to mistakes that led to turnovers. Hobart won the critical ensuing faceoff after Elliott’s goal, with Nick Sotiropoulos picking up the ground ball for the Statesmen. However, Hobart had difficulty clearing the ball and Tyler Clayton of UMass picked off the pass.
Clayton’s steal led to a Trace Hogan shot that bounced right in front of the cage, but Aidan Drunsic was inside the crease while trying to get the loose ball, leading to a Minutemen turnover. Another turnover caused by significant Minutemen defensive pressure gave them yet another opportunity, but another violation was called on UMass, this time a charge against Hogan, sealing the game as time ran out.
“A lot of fight, there was some execution in terms of trying to accomplish getting the ball back and then execution scoring the ball,” Cannella said about the final minutes of the game. “There was a lot of sense of urgency for sure.”
Trailing by five goals with about 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Minutemen needed to battle back to have a chance to win the game. As they have done several times this year, the Gorillas proved to be a resilient team. They unleashed a 5-1 run over the next 10 minutes and got the game to within one goal with just over one minute left, before falling short.
“This has been a resilient group, a really good group to coach all year long,” Cannella said. “Not surprised at that, you just wish that that sense of urgency was evident in the third quarter when they went on their run.”
On Senior Day, it was two graduating seniors who helped lead the way for the Gorillas. Hogan, the senior midfielder put up a hat trick with three goals and four assists to finish with a seven-point performance. Caelin Lewis, also a senior midfielder, posted a hat trick in his final game at Garber Field.
“[They] made some nice plays, shot the ball pretty well,” Cannella said of Lewis and Hogan. “I think [Lewis] was three-for-five shooting. You know I guess those guys, they’re consistent shooters, it’s their last game at Garber so they want to move away from it with a good feeling about it.”
From the beginning of the game, the Minutemen knew that it would not be an easy game against the Statesmen, as Hobart jumped out to an early 4-1 advantage in the first quarter. UMass settled into the game and took over the lead in the second quarter, going into the half at 8-7.
The Statesmen came out with a strong start to the second half, unleashing six consecutive goals before Aiden Drunsic ended the Minutemen’s scoring drought of over 12 minutes to begin the third quarter. The third quarter surge by Hobart and the Minutemen’s scoring drought was a major factor in the result.
“At times we looked like a real team and other times we didn’t,” Cannella said. “I was so worried coming out of halftime … I don’t know if we were doubting ourselves or what but we were up by a goal and we [kind of] let that quarter slip, and that was really the difference in the game.”
After the three-way tie between UMass, Saint Joseph’s and Hobart was solved via tiebreakers, the Minutemen are set to enter the A-10 tournament as the No. 4 seed. UMass will rematch the No. 1 seed Richmond Spiders, who are a perfect 5-0 in conference play. The semifinal matchup will take place on Thursday, May 1 in Philadelphia at 11 a.m.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
