ANN ARBOR - Humiliation, annihilation, cremation and any other derogatory action verbs that might come to mind can certainly describe Eastern Michigan's pounding at the hands of the Mens Collegiate Lacrosse Association's No. 1 ranked team, the University of Michigan, 33-8 Friday night.
From the opening whistle, the Wolverines dominate the game in every way on the stats sheet. The Wolverines dominated by out-shooting Eastern 55 to 27, and won the groundball battle, 81 to 35. The Wolverines were 33 of 46 on faceoffs, and finished 22 of 25 on clears, while riding EMU to 12-31 totals. The Maize and Blue finished 6-6 on the man-up, while the Eagles scored once in four opportunities.
The scoreboard said it all...33-8.
Eastern did have a few bright moments, as Lee Wright, on a recent scoring tear, had three goals and two assists against the powerful Michigan machine, while Romaine Witt notched two goals.
However, the Eagles duo wasn't enough to offset the precision and speed of John Paul's squad.
"I said a couple of days ago against Bowling Green, if we didn't tighten down the defense, Michigan would need a calculator to keep score and that wasn't far from the truth," said Greg Normand, Eastern's head coach. "Am I disappointed with the way we played, sure. I've never been beaten that bad at anything before in my life, but you can't blame Michigan for our inability to stop their offense."
Normand said he was disappointed his team didn't play better and would have liked to have 'given a better showing in Ann Arbor." But he also said you have to take a realistic view of the competition in the CCLA.
"Whenever you play the No. 1 undefeated, defending national champions, you better be ready to play.....and we weren't ready to compete," Normand said. "Was it dishearting watching JP (Michigan's coach) continue to use first-string players late in the game, sure, but that's what he always does with his teams and you have to expect that.....we needed to be ready."
Normand said Michigan has a reputation "of not taking prisoners" during games.
"If you don't want the Globetrotters and the Washington Generals, you should drop out of the CCLA's Division I if you can't compete.....we have to get better so we can compete, but there are only a few teams in this country that can compete with Michigan the last couple of seasons," Normand said. "He has a great program, a great program, but again, we have to remember that this isn't scholarship lacrosse. The MCLA is just another great landscape for talented young athletes who love the game and want to compete after high school....and Michigan has done the best job in the country of attracting top-notched players who are willing to shell out thousands of dollars to participate for a superb program. My hat is off to the boys from Michigan because if we want to compete anytime soon, we'll have to at least double our team dues for next year."
Eastern Michigan plays Grand Valley State Saturday in Allendale. Grand Valley State is the No. 1 ranked team in Division II of the MCLA.