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| DIVISION II UPCOMING GAMES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PREGAME | 5/17 |  GVSU |   Davenport |
| PREGAME | 5/17 |  Dayton |  St. Thomas |
Wolverines Dominate in Regular-Season Finale
Event: Michigan Men’s Lacrosse
Site: Toledo, Ohio (The Glass Bowl)
Score: #1Michigan 16, Toledo 1
Records: U-M (14-0, 3-0 CCLA), Toledo (2-8, 0-3 CCLA)
Next U-M Game: Saturday, May 7, 2011, 1:00pm EST – CCLA Conference Tournament Semi-Finals (Opponent TBD)
Wolverines Dominate in Regular-Season Finale
Toledo, Ohio – The #1 ranked University of Michigan Men’s Lacrosse team cruised to a 16-1 win over the Toledo Rockets on Saturday night (April 23) in Toledo, Ohio. Michigan dominated throughout the contest, rolling through their entire bench in the process as sophomore attackman Thomas Paras (Lakewood, OH. – St. Ignatius) paced the team with two goals and three assists while fellow sophomore attackman Zach Dauch (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser) notched a career-high four goals.
Michigan opened the scoring in the first quarter on a man-up tally from sophomore attackman Ryan Dutton-O’Hara (Mount Airy, MD – Urbana – St. Johns) who finished a cross-crease feed from Paras on the man-up at 11:10 of the first.
Michigan struck again at 5:51 when senior attackman Chad Carroll (Cincinnati, OH – St. Xavier High) finished another feed from Paras for the 2-0 lead. Toledo responded at 3:56 with their first tally of the game, but Michigan answered shortly after as Paras tallied another assist, feeding senior attackman and captain Trevor Yealy (Pittsburgh, Penn./Upper St. Claire) just outside the crease for the 3-1 lead at the end of the first.
Sophomore midfielder Joe Hrusovsky (Lake Forest, IL – Lake Forest) got Michigan going in the second quarter on a dodge down the left wing for the 4-1 lead at 13:44. U-M increased their lead to 5-1 following a successful ride that resulted in a wide-open chance in front for freshman attackman Jeff Chu (Berwyn, PA/Conestaga) who finished a feed from freshman midfielder Fernando Murias (Rockville, MD./Georgetown Prep). Chu added his second of the game at 9:12 of the second as the Maize and Blue increased their lead to 6-1.
Paras added his first of the game at 3:07 just following a Wolverine man-up attempt on a high-to-high shot for the 7-1 lead late in the first half. Freshman attackman Ryan Snyder (Houston, Texas/Episcopal) increased the lead two minutes later on a feed from sophomore midfielder Willie Steenland (Minneapolis, MN./The Blake School) before Dauch wrapped up the first-half scoring just before time expired on a one-handed shot as Michigan took a 9-1 lead into the second half.
U-M got rolling quickly in the second half as Dauch buried his second of the game at 14:01 of the third before Paras scored his second of the game at 10:23 on a dodge from behind the cage for the 11-1 lead. The teams traded multiple possessions down the stretch of the third quarter with neither team finding the back of the net as U-M took an 11-1 into the final frame.
Dutton-O’Hara notched his second of the game at 13:44 of the fourth on a feed from sophomore attackman Matt Joseph (Westlake, Ohio/St. Ignatius) for the first goal of the period and a 12-1 Michigan lead.
Snyder buried his second of the game at 5:48 from right outside the crease following a nice feed from Dutton-O’Hara. Michigan scored just four seconds later as freshman midfielder Andrew Hayden (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) buried his first career goal coming off a clear faceoff win of his own. Dauch added his third of the game on a transition tally under a minute later, followed by his fourth of the game following the ensuing faceoff win for Michigan as U-M led 16-1 with under three minutes left. Neither team scored down the stretch as the Wolverines improved to 14-0.
Statistically, the Wolverines dominated as well. U-M scooped up 57 groundballs compared to 22, and won 17 of 20 faceoffs. Michigan also out-shot UT 44-7 for the biggest shot differential this season. Michigan cleared the ball at a rate of 18-23 while riding Toledo to 10-28 totals. U-M scored once on three man-up attempts, while the Rockets failed to score on four attempts.
The Michigan Wolverines will be back in action on Saturday, May 1 for a CCLA Conference Tournament semi-final match vs. a yet to be determined opponent. The CCLA tournament will once again be held in Saline, Michigan at Saline High School. Game-time is preliminarily scheduled for 1:00pm EST.
NOTES
● Paras (2-3-5) led the team in points while Dauch was second in points and first in goals with 4-0-4.
● Senior faceoff specialist Brian Greiner (Grosse Pointe, MI – Grosse Pointe South/RPI) finished 5-5 at the “X”, while junior Edward Ernst (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) finished 7-9. Hrusovsky finished 1-2 and Hayden posted 3-3 totals. Sophomore defenseman J.D. Johnson (Malibu, Calif./Loyola) finished won his lone attempt in the fourth quarter.
● Ernst paced the team with five groundballs.
● Sophomore goaltender Cy Abdelnour (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) played the entire game and finished with two saves and one goal against.
● Senior captain and long-stick midfielder Matt Asperheim (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) failed to score for the first time in eight games.
● After tonight’s contest, Paras and Yealy have registered a point in every game so far this season. Hrusovsky has also registered a point in every game except one.
● Snyder registered his first career assist in the game.
● The contest between the two schools was the first at the MCLA level.
QUOTES
Head Coach John Paul
On general impressions: “It was a nice night to finish the regular season on. It was a beautiful night and it was great to get a lot of time for some of the guys who don’t see the field as often. Overall it was a nice way to finish up the first part of the season and now we look forward to the next part.”
On balancing playing time and working out kinks: “We did a few things differently today; we ran through some offensive sets very quickly to work on getting in and out of things quickly and I think that helped us today. We wanted to focus on playing sound defense as well regardless of who was in. We haven’t been our best there in a couple of weeks. The key was getting quality time for everyone and we did that.”
On who impressed: “Our young attack plays so hard when they get in there so it’s great to give them an opportunity and they really took to it. We didn’t really get challenged on defense, but they stepped up when they need to. Jake Dockser had a great break near the end of the game and we got a lot of guys through on faceoff and they did a nice job. It’s good to know that we have some depth there if we need it. We needed guys to dodge hard tonight and we weren’t doing that early on. Some of the attackman we put in later took it upon themselves to make some offense.”
On the upcoming weeks: “Next week we’re in finals, so we’ll only practice twice next week and let the guys focus on that. We also have our banquet next week so it won’t be too intensive. But the guys know that after that, the two weeks following, are going to be the toughest of the year. That’s our focus now. We have two tournaments left, and everything we do from here on out is one and done and that is how we’re approaching it.”
On early expectations vs. realities: “I think we’re still a work in progress in a few places. I don’t think we’re exactly where we want to be defensively, and I think the midfielders might have taken a step back in recent weeks but overall I think we’re headed in the right direction and we have all the pieces in place both tactically and athletically. We’re also as healthy as we’ve ever been. We just need to take the those two or three steps over the next couple of weeks to really get to the place where we all envisioned this team could be. These two or three weeks are about separation. We know we can go in and win six games, but it’s about improving enough where there is no question.”
Contact:email address enkoded – 734-276-8493
