Yealy’s Six Power Wolverines Past Michigan StateBy CCLA on Sunday, April 17th, 2011

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Yealy’s Six Power Wolverines Past Michigan State

Event: Michigan Men’s Lacrosse
Site: Birmingham, Mich. (Birmingham-Seaholm H.S.)
Score: #1Michigan 14, #6 Michigan State 10
Records: U-M (13-0, 2-0 CCLA), MSU (9-4, 1-0 CCLA)
Next U-M Game: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 7:00pm EST – vs. Toledo – Toledo, OH.

Yealy’s Six Power Wolverines Past Michigan State

Birmingham, MI –On a rainy Saturday night (April 16) in Birmingham, MI, the #1 ranked University of Michigan Wolverines defeated the Spartans of Michigan State University by a score of 14-10 in the annual Great Lakes Lacrosse Classic. Michigan led 9-4 after the first half, and held on down the stretch in front of crowd of over 2000 who braved the conditions. Senior captain and attackman Trevor Yealy (Pittsburgh, PA – Upper St. Clair) paced the team with six goals as Michigan improved to 13-0 on the season.

As the first quarter started, the Wolverines won the opening faceoff and settled into the offensive half of the field before Yealy scored from just outside the crease on an assist from junior midfielder Alex Vasileff (Birmingham, MI – Seaholm). After a man-up kill for the Wolverines just over a minute later, sophomore midfielder Joe Hrusovsky (Lake Forest, IL – Lake Forest) burned his defender on the high wing driving towards the net on the right alley and scored with a low, far side blast.

Michigan continued their scoring run as freshman midfielder Doug Bryant (Princeton, NJ – Princeton) scored on a pass intended for Yealy but bounced in low. The Wolverines’ attack added another goal as senior attackman Chad Carroll (Cincinnati, OH – St. Xavier High) scored on a high blast off a cross-field assist from sophomore attackman Thomas Paras (Lakewood, OH – St. Ignatius). After seven minutes of play, the Spartans battled back with back-to-back goals coming at 1:39 and just over a minute later for a 4-2 Michigan lead at the end of the first quarter.

As the second quarter began, both teams were unable to score until midway through the quarter when Carroll netted his second at 7:50 beating the goalie on a shot high. MSU answered with their third goal of the night coming from the crease over a minute later in the second. Bryant buried his second on a pass from X for a low blast beating the goalie while he was struggling to reset two minutes later. Following an ensuing faceoff win, the squad moved the ball to their offensive unit and added to their lead as Paras assisted transfer sophomore attackman Ryan Dutton-O’Hara (Mount Airy, MD – Urbana – St. Johns) on a diving shot beating MSU’s goaltender on the far side.

Just over a minute later, on Michigan’s first man up opportunity, the unit rifled the ball around before Dutton-O’Hara fed Yealy, increasing Michigan’s lead to 8-3. The back-and-forth scoring persisted when the Spartans scored their fourth of the contest at 1:07, but it was the Wolverines who took momentum into the half. As time in the half expired, senior defender Matt Asperheim (Grand Rapids, MI – East Grand Rapids) drove up the field on a successful clear finding Yealy right outside the crease just before time ended lifting the Wolverines to a 9-4 lead after two quarters of play.

To start the second half, and as they have all season, U-M replaced senior goaltender Mark Stone (Greenwood Village, CO – Cherry Creek) with senior goaltender Andrew Fowler (Grosse Pointe, MI – Hotchkiss, CT) on a planned goalie change. MSU came out strong in the third scoring at 14:19 and again at 13:10 to cut the Wolverines lead to 9-6 shortly into the half. After two minutes of back and forth action, Asperheim netted a goal on a wrap around for his first of the night. During Asperheim’s goal, MSU was given a penalty sending out Michigan’s man up unit for the second time of the game. The group passed the ball around until Hrusovsky fed Dutton-O’Hara on the crease for his second. Once again the Spartans responded, cutting the lead to 11-7 a minute later.

Over the next five minutes, both teams had possessions but were unsuccessful as intensity increased and the defenses buckled down. At 3:39, Yealy netted his fourth of the night before MSU answered Michigan’s onslaught a minute later to cut the Michigan lead to 12-8 at the end of the quarter.

The Spartans inched closer when they netted the first goal of the fourth at 13:34. Yealy responded for Michigan, netting back-to-back goals over the next four minutes as U-M increased their lead to 14-9 with 9:20 left. The Spartans quickly answered under a minute later to cut the lead to four, but were never able to draw closer as Michigan’s defense held on down the stretch for the 14-10 win.

Statistically, it was a mixed bag. U-M scooped up 51 groundballs compared to 34, and won 21 of 28 faceoffs but was out-shot by MSU 43-41. Both teams struggled to clear the ball, with the Wolverines finishing 12-24, while MSU was 13-23. U-M scored twice on three man-up attempts, while the Spartans scored on one of five opportunities.
The Michigan Wolverines will be back in action on Saturday, April 23 at 7:00pm EST against University of Toledo in Toledo, OH. For all of your Michigan Men’s Lacrosse needs, please visit mgobluelacrosse.com.

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NOTES
● Yealy (6-0-6) led the team in points with six goals. Paras (0-4-4) came in second with four assists while Dutton-O’Hara (2-1-3) came in third with two goals and an assist.
● Senior faceoff specialist Brian Greiner (Grosse Pointe, MI – Grosse Pointe South/RPI) finished 21 of 28 at the “X”.
● Greiner and Yealy led the team with eight groundballs. Paras and senior captain and defenseman Harrison Freid (Needham, MA – Needham) tied for second with five groundballs while Asperheim and Fowler tied for third with four groundballs.
● Stone started the game, finishing with six saves and four goals against. Fowler took over in the second half saving nine and letting in six goals.
● Asperheim has scored points in seven straight games.
● After tonight’s contest, Vasileff, 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.
● Michigan improves to 21-1 all-time vs. Michigan State.

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QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On general impressions: “That was a much sloppier game than we like to play; I thought we started so well and got off to the start we wanted and were in a position to really set the tone. We started to make some mental mistakes that allowed them back in to the game; I thought we gave them some pretty easy transition goals and they’re a great transition team. Once they got into it, I think the game just became a little fast paced for us; we were playing their game a little bit more than ours and that kept it close.”

On their transition offense: “They have great offensive players, they have as good a top six as I think anybody in the MCLA, so they put a lot of pressure on us even in sixes. We usually play pretty good defense in six on six once we get in those situations, but against great teams you can’t give them easy transition opportunities or man up opportunities and we just gave up too many of those opportunities.”

On the man up unit: “We put something new in our man up every week so there’s always one or two new things we can do every week. We had one this week that we ran in each of our man up opportunities today and we were getting the kind of looks we wanted. The changes in our man up unit in the past few weeks have been about firing the ball around and playing smarter. We worked really hard on that for a few weeks of practice and now in these last couple weeks in games we’ve started seeing the results.”

On what to take away from the game: “We always talk to the guys about these little lapses that we have sometimes when we make some mental errors and the tone of the game changes when we do that; that’s what we can take away from this game and that’s been the case in a few of our bigger games. We just let up mentally for a few minutes and great teams are going to jump on you when you do that and Michigan State did that tonight. Fortunately I think we have enough firepower and Brian Greiner did a great job at faceoffs tonight. Between those two things we capitalized on more opportunities than they had, but I’d really prefer we don’t give up that many next time.”

Senior attackman Trevor Yealy

On general impressions of the game: “It was a solid, exciting game which is always the case when we play them in weather like this the last three years. We got ahead early, but we let them crawl back into it and from then on out it was a tight game. If we could clean up the mistakes we made on defense and offense wise we’d be better off. We played sloppy on both ends, I think it was a factor of the weather and the intensity but we came away with it.”

On his personal play tonight: “I’m happy with it; my goal for the year has been to try to shoot over 50% and I haven’t been too consistent with that. I was happy with my shooting tonight except for a few but that’s going to be the case every game. Overall I was happy with what I did and I hope the coaches were too.”

On the man up unit: “The man up is coming a long way. In the beginning of the year we looked ugly, so we tweaked some things and now it’s really coming together. The sets we have going now are really effective once we get into it them and I also think it’s a function of us getting comfortable with moving the ball around, finding those holes and feeling comfortable out there.”

On playing in a rivalry game: “It’s always a big game and everyone is always up for State and they’re always up for us. I was talking to a kid from State that doesn’t play for the team that said they were trying to get people to come out here so everyone’s emotions are running high. We always try our best to keep them in check; it’s an emotional game with a lot of passion and a heated rivalry. The team that gets out of their emotions and out of their game first is going to succumb to the other so it’s all about keeping our emotions in check and make sure we stick to playing our game and not let emotion take over and fall into playing their game.”

Senior defender Harry Freid

On general impressions: “We came out really fired up like we have been all season. We got on a good run, started to win faceoffs and our ride was working early. We started turning the ball over, slowing it down a little bit and that let them get some confidence and Michigan State came to play.”

On shutting down their transition offense: “We got lucky a little bit. One of our rides really opens things up for them and I don’t think we got into it as much in the second half and that’s what was different.”

On what the team can take away from the game: “If we see them again it will be a tough matchup; any time we play a team twice it’s going to be closer. They’re going to be hungry and ready to play next time so we’ll have to bring the same intensity, if not more.”

Written By: Andrew Kuhn

Contact: email address enkoded – 734-276-8493