Men's LAX rallies to edge Union 8-7; win streak at five
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - The men's lacrosse team stood tough against a very strong Union squad this afternoon and managed to endure for an 8-7 victory in a game that Eph head coach George McCormack said his team was "fortunate to win".
Williams is now enjoying a five-game win streak and have inched over the .500 mark for the first time all season at 6-5. Union, who were coming off a disheartening loss to Skidmore last Friday, are now 5-5 after starting their '09 campaign 4-1.
"Union is a very good team and they gave us all we could handle today," commented McCormack. "I give a lot of credit to Coach Wehrum for preparing his team emotionally the way he did coming off their tough loss to Skidmore.... Emotionally I thought we were not as committed as we should have been and we came out a little flat to start the game. We were quite lucky to come away with a win."
Although it was a close game on the scoreboard throughout the match, the final stats were not as tightly contended. Williams heaved 44 shots at the cage to Union's 29, and won 48 ground balls to the Dutchmen's 34. Sophomore Corey Jacobs dominated the faceoff circle for the Ephs, winning 14 of his 18 attempts. Union senior goaltender Christopher Keinath was impressive in the crease, denying 17 of 25, but it was not enough to outmatch his senior counterpart and co-captain Michael Gerbush, who stopped 9 of 16 for the Ephs.
"I thought Gerbush, Jacobs, and Hawley stepped it up their game big time for us," noted McCormack. "Gerbush was solid, as he has been all year, as has Jacobs, and I think Hawley really carried us late in the game and came into his own as a leader of this team today.... Our middies, namely Powell, Weeks, Morrissey did a stellar job as well."
Sophomore attacker David Hawley rifled home 3 goals, including a crucial game-tying score in the final quarter to shift the momentum in the Eph's favor. On the other side, junior attacker Andrew Higgins amassed 4 goals for the Dutchmen and sophomore attacker Brendan Kinnane registered 3 assists as well.
Kinnane found midfielder Scott Garibaldi at the top of the box to kickoff the scoring in the first frame at 11:28. Junior attacker Richard Reuter responded a minute later by juking under a defender and firing a blast through Keinath to tie it up. After rookie attacker Ted McKenna made a nifty move to fling in a top-shelf underhander, junior midfielder Bryan Wrapp fed sophomore midfielder Matt Cranshaw for a last-second goal just before the horn sounded (0:00.6 on the scoreboard).
Hawley gave the Ephs their first lead early in the second frame on a perimeter blast with help from Reuter. After a long silence, Union finally answered with a one-time connection from behind the cage, Kinnane to Higgins. On the ensuing faceoff, Jacobs took matters into his own hands, nabbing the ground ball and charging straight at the Union net to take the lead right back 4-3.
The third quarter was mostly uneventful until about midway through, when Hawley's drive from the top corner of the box ended the drought and gave the Ephs a two-goal edge, 5-3. Once again, the Dutchmen responded to the Eph attack with quick transition and clean ball movement, and it lead to back-to-back goals by Higgins from Kinnane and McKenna. McKenna completed the comeback with an outstanding spin move at the side of the net and the finishing top-shelf score to put Union ahead 6-5 heading into the final fifteen minutes.
In a repeat of the previous quarter, Hawley shattered a seven-minute silence with a critical game-tying score from the middle of the box. Freshman attacker Michael Ryan found him for the assist.
After a tense five minutes of back-and-forth action, the Ephs reclaimed the lead with emphasis, as Cranshaw and sophomore attacker Tommy Murray netted back-to-back scores within seven seconds of each other to put Williams up by a score of 8-6. Higgins would come up with one more with just under two minutes left, but it was not enough, as Gerbush and the Ephs defense held off the Dutchmen's final push to take the win 8-7.
The Ephs have just two games left in their '09 regular season schedule, two NESCAC matchups against Wesleyan and Middlebury. This Saturday's Wesleyan game will take place at the Cardinals home field and will determine the winner of this year's Little Three Championship. Action will begin in Middletown, CT at 1:00PM.
