Boxscore
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Williams men's
lacrosse pulled out a 7-6 victory over Colby this afternoon to open
its season. The Ephs claimed the victory behind stellar play in
goal from Stephen Vrla, who had 11 saves in the game, and great
work in the attack from Matt Cranshaw, who had 2 goals, 2 assists,
and four ground balls. Co-captain Andrew D'Ambrosio helped
lead the Eph defense with 3 ground balls.
Colby jumped out to a 2-0 lead 7:27 into the first period behind
goals from Greg McKillop and Stew Brown. Tim Goggins was able to
respond for Williams with 3:06 remaining in the quarter, as he
picked up a rebound he just outside the crease off a shot from Matt
Cranshaw and fired it past Colby netminder Tom Gianakos, cutting
the Mules lead to 2-1.
No team scored the rest of the first, but 1:41 into the second
Sam Hargrove was able to cut through the Mules' defense and
hit the top corner to tie up the game 2-2. Colby then scored two
goals within fifty seconds to make the score 4-2, with the first
coming from McKillop with 11:31 and the second coming from
Whit McCarthy with 10:43 remaining.
Mike Ryan was able to take advantage of man-advantage for Williams
with 5:06 to play in the half as he snapped a laser past Gianakos
off from the left into the upper left hand corner off a pass from
Richard Reuter, and the teams entered the half tied 4-3.
“We talked about winning ground balls at the half,”
said Eph head coach George McCormack. “We felt as though that
was lacking in the first and that was costing us especially outside
the crease, where the picked up a few rebounds for goals. We said
that whoever wins the third quarter is probably going to win the
game… and that we were going to try to use our fitness and
be physical with [Colby] and wear them down.”
McCormack's words about the third proved prophetic. The
Ephs took control of the game in the third, blanking the Mules
while putting three past Gianakos. Corey Jacobs scored the first
goal for the Ephs 2:49 into the period, and Cranshaw led the way
for the rest of the period with two goals, with 9:41 and 5:25 left
in the period, respectively, to give the Ephs a 6-4 lead headed
into the fourth. Reuter assisted the first, while Cranshaw did the
work for the second on his own, barreling through the center of the
Colby defense before spinning to his left and flinging a lefty shot
into the upper right of the net.
The fourth started with a bang for the Ephs: the team again took
advantage of a man-up opportunity, as Cranshaw cut to the middle
before dropping the ball off to Hargrove on the right, who dumped
the ball past Gianakos just outside the crease to give the Ephs a
7-4 lead only 32 seconds into the period. Neither team was able to
score for the next 11 minutes, and the Ephs looked like they would
walk away with an easy victory; but then McCarthy scored his second
goal of the game with 3:12 to play, and McKillop scored his third
with 1:30 remaining to cut the Ephs' lead to 7-6. It then
looked as though Colby could send the game to overtime, as the
Mules won the face-off off of McKillop's goal, but the Eph
defense held up to pull out the victory.
Vrla's second half was particularly impressive, as the Eph
goalie had 9 second-half saves. Gianakos finished with 12 saves for
the Mules. The two teams finished the game with 33 shots each, and
the Ephs outworked the Mules on the ground with 21 groundball
victories to Colby's 18. Colby stand-out face-off man Craig Bunker
won 9 face-offs on the game, while Jacobs won 4 for the Ephs.
“I thought the defense when they exerted pressure did an
excellent job,” said McCormack. “We didn't give
them that many looks. I our thought goalie play was really solid in
third and fourth, and I thought Jacobs did nice things at the
face-off circle, going against the best face-off guy in our
conference [in Bunker]. Cranshaw, Vrla and D'Ambrosio all
stood out in my eyes during the game.”
Williams will now spend a week preparing for an extended road
trip: the team will play Bates on the road next Saturday at 1 p.m.
before traveling to Virginia for two of four games over the spring
break.
“We went on the road last weekend and played Trinity and
Amherst [in scrimmages],” said McCormack. “We felt that
was a good test run in regards to playing on the road. The biggest
thing is that we kind of like being on the road [over the break]
because there is no class work, and we get to stay in hotels and do
some bonding as a team. We have some great challenges ahead,
though.”
