Friends of Fairfield Athletics

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-The men’s lacrosse team for Fairfield University Stags continue their recent home stand with a game on Tuesday March 19th at 4 PM on Alumni Field.  The Stags will play intrastate rival, Quinnipiac College Bobcats in a renewal of this annual battle.  Fairfield comes into the game with a 4-3 record and the Bobcats currently sport a 3-2 mark for the 2013 season.  This game will be the last non ECAC Lacrosse League Conference game for Fairfield for 2013.  Quinnipiac’s Head Coach Eric Fekete was a former Stags assistant coach when the Stags first started its Division 1 Program a number of years ago and he would love for his current team to beat his former team.

The Bobcats had its first game at home against Dartmounth cancelled due to the February snow storm.  They opened at Brown and beat the Ivy League opponent by a 9-7 score.  Quinnipiac next traveled to Detroit and played Detroit Mercy and came home with a 12-10 victory.  The final road game to start the season was at Burlington, Vermont with the Bobcats beating Vermont Catamounts by a 10-6 margin to open their season with a 3-0 mark.  Providence College traveled to Hamden, CT for the Bobcats home opener on March 12th.  The Friars topped Quinnipiac by a one goal margin with the final score of 13-12.  The University of Hartford made the trip down I91 to play Quinnipiac’s second home game of the season. Hartford went home with a 11-10 victory over the Bobcats.  Junior Goal Keeper Gil Conners for Quinnipiac had a sensational day making 20 saves while facing 31 shots.  He stopped five goals in the first and second periods and stopped seven shots in the fourth period while getting to eight ground balls.  Neither team had more than a two goal lead with Hartford going up 5-3 at the 11:08 mark of the second quarter.  Quinnipiac got two straight goals to tie the game at 5-5 with both teams going to the locker room for half time.  The Bobcats scored first in the third quarter and the teams traded goals going into the fourth period.  With the game tied at 9-9, the Hawks scored two straight goals to get some separation between the two team for a 11-9 score.  The Bobcats scored a goal at 2:43 but could not score the tying goal despite two shots that went wide in the last 30 seconds of the game.

Quinnipiac’s Sports Information Office does not produce a lot of their oppenent’s statistics.  The Bobcats have scored 53 goals this season for a 10.6 goals per game average with 32.8 shots being taken by the Bobcats. The opponents have scored 47 goals this year for a 9.40 goals against average. The Bobcats have taken 164 shots this year.  Quinnipiac has scored 34 goals with the assist and 19 goals unassisted.  Their man up unit has scored 6 goals in 2013 out of 17 chances with a 35.3% conversion rate.  Quinnipiac has scored two man down goals.

The Bobcats have gotten to 175 ground balls.  Quinnipiac has turned the ball over 93 times and have created 53 caused turnovers.  Their face off unit has won 60 out of 118 chances for a .508 winning percentage.  The Bobcats have successfully completed .846 of their clears.

The leading scorer for the Bobcats is Michael Saql with 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points.  Basil Kostaras has 12 points with 9 goals and 3 assists.  Brendan Wilbur has five goals and five assists for 10 points in 2013.  Dylan Webster has six goals and three assists for 9 points and Jay Binkowski has three goals and two assists for five points.  Gil Conners has played all 300 minutes in the goal in 2013 for Quinnipiac.  He has allowed 47 goals with a 9.4 goals against average.  He has 71 saves this season with a 60.2 save percentage.

Fairfield has scored 61 goals this year after taking 240 shot attempts for a 8.71 goals per game average and a .254 shot percentage.  Their opponents have scored 63 goals with the opposition has taken 265 shot attempts for a 9.00 goals per game average and a.238 shot percentage. Fairfield has taken 34.3 shots per game and the opponents are averaging 37.9 shots per game.  The Stags have gotten 33 goals via an assist and 28 unassisted goals while the opponents have 30 goals via the assist and 33 unassisted goals.  Fairfield have converted nine extra man goals this season going 9-37this season for .243 conversion rate while the opponents have scored 9 goals in 26 attempts for a .346 conversion rate.

Fairfield has gotten to 216 ground balls and the opponents have scooped up 247 ground balls.  The Stags have turned the ball over 107 times this year while the opponents are turning the ball over 110 times.  Fairfield’s defense has caused 49 turnovers this season and the opponents have caused the Stags to turn the ball over 63 times.  In the face off circle, Fairfield has won 54 of 145 attempts for a .372 winning percentage and the opponents have been successful 91 times out of 145 chances for a .628 winning percentage.  The Stags have been successful on .825 percentage  of their clears and the opposition has cleared the ball with a .810 percentage. Fairfield has been penalized 30 times this season and the opponents have been flagged 36 times.

The opening stanza has seen Fairfield score 17 times in the 2013 campaign.  The second and fourth periods has seen the Stags hit the back of the net with 16 goals being scored. Fairfield’s least productive period had been the third period with 12 goals being scored.  The opponents best scoring period is the final quarter with 22 goals.  Opponents have scored 15 times in both the second and third quarters.  The opponents have scored 11 times in the first period.

Leading the Stags in scoring are Jordan Greenfield with 15 goals and 5 assists for 20 points and Sam Snow is second on the team with 14 goals and five assists for 19 points.  Super Soph Colin McLinden has four goals and eight assists for twelve points.  Tristian Sperry now has 9 points with seven goals and two assists. Nick Guida has eight points with six goals and two assists.  Eric Warden has three goals and four assists for seven points.Super Frosh TJ Neubauer has so far four goals and two assists for six points along with Marshall Johnson has six points with three goals and three assists.  Jack Murphy has played all 420 minutes in goal this year. He has allowed 63 goals for a 9.00 goals against average and getting 88 saves for a .583 save percentage.  Murphy has faced 265 shots so far in this season.

What to expect for this game:  Hard to get a feel for this game.  Looked at the Hartford schedule to see if there are any common opponents and came away with nothing. The Stags lead the series between the schools with a 3-1 edge.  Fairfield won at Hamden, CT last year by a 9-6 score for the second consecutive win in the series.  Both Quinnipiac and Fairfield are in the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.  The Bobcats were ranked second last week and Fairfield was ranked fifth.  The Stags are 1-1 in NEILA games beating Bryant and losing to Yale.  On the surface, looks like if you stop the three top scorers for Quinnipiac, you stop their offense.  Thus the Defense will have to play tough against Sagl, Webster (who also takes the majority of the face offs) and Kostaras.  We need Sam Snow to find the back of the net on Tuesday.  The extra man unit needs to increase its conversion rate.  Face offs are critical and have to start winning 50% or better from the circle.  The only three games the Stags have lost were to all nationally ranked teams.  Quinnipiac has not played any nationally ranked teams.  Thus the Bobcats are playing a step up coming to Fairfield.  But the Bobcats have won all three of their road games and have had two very straight tough losses.  They are a pesky team.  But Coach Copelan teams have a stellar record over the last five years in close games.  They are 27-12 in games decided by two or less goals in the last five years. I predict that Snow will find the range on Tuesday, Greenfield will continue his scoring run, and Colin McLindon and Tristian Sperry  to have breakout games.  The Stags have limited their turnovers in 2013 and I think the defense unit is maturing anchored by the fine play of Jack Murphy in goal.  No predictions on the final score but I think this will be a close game with the Stags prevailing. I will be at the game and will send out the final score when I return home.  GO STAGS!!  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-The Stags (4-3) (1-0) outlasted the Michigan Wolverines (0-7) (0-3) on Thursday night under the lights on the Fairfield campus.  It was a cold and windy night.  The lights on the field are not that great and we hope that the new lacrosse stadium will be funded sometime soon.  Fairfield scored three of the last four goals scored breaking a 7-7 tie with 4 minutes left in the third period.

Sophomore Lou DiGiacomo started the game taking the initial face off with Michigan’s Brad Lott in the face off circle.  Lott wins the face off and gets to the ground ball and Michigan works the ball around the wheel.  The Stags’ defense is playing aggressively and Junior Defender Greg Perraut creates a turnover 24 seconds into the game.  Junior Goal Keeper Jack Murphy picks up the loose ground ball and starts the clear. Senior co-captain Sam Snow takes the first shot of the game and the Michigan Goal Keeper Gerald Logan makes a save.  Freshman Midfielder Conor Dalton who got the start due to Frosh TJ Neubauer’s injury picks up the loose ground ball and makes a great pass to the cutting Junior Eric Warden who buries the shot for a 1-0 Fairfield leads with 13:15 showing on the clock.  Dalton is credited with the assist and this is his first Fairfield point with many more to come in the next four years.  Lott beats DiGiacomo on the face off but the Wolverines make a quick turnover.  The Stags take the ball down the field but the Stags now have a turnover.  Michigan clears and set up their offense.  With 11:49 left in the period, Michigan’s David McCormack gets a goal with an assist from David Joseph to tie the game at 1-1.  Michigan wins the third face off of the day and the Wolverines take a wide shot and then the Stags’ Murphy makes a good save.  During the Michigan offense, the officials call a questionable cross check (sorry Steve-this crew had a bad night!!) on Junior D Middie Shawn Honovich.  The Stags man down unit is keeps Michigan from getting a shot and with 20 seconds left the penalty, Michigan turns the ball over.  The Stags clear the ball and kill the balance of the penalty while setting up their offense.  Frosh Dalton dodges the Michigan defense and scores his first Stags goal unassisted with 9:04 in the period for a 2-1 Stags lead.  A goal and an assist for Dalton in his first start just 6 minutes into the game.  DiGiacomo wins the face off and Sophomore D Middie Bryan Barry picks up the loose ball and  goes directly to the cage. The Michigan defense does not pick up Barry who fires a hard shot by the Michigan goal keeper 6 seconds after Dalton’s goal.  Barry’s goal is unassisted.  Fairfield now has a 3-1 lead.  DiGiacomo wins the face off and the Stags set up their offense.  Junior Attack Jordan Greenfield takes the ball to the cage and scores unassisted for a 4-1 Fairfield lead with with 7:34 remaining in the first period.  The Wolveries coach calls a time out to break the Fairfield momentum. Michigan now goes on a three goal run over the next two periods.  Michigan wins the face off coming out of the timeout.  The two teams trade shots and turnovers over the next few minutes.  With 2:37 left in the period, Coach Copelan calls a time out in an effort to get a last minute goal.  On the restart the Stags misconnect on a pass and the Wolverines now have the ball and start their clear.  Michigan’s Will Meter scores a goal with an assist from Charlie Keady with 1:56 on the clock for the first period to cut the Fairfield lead to 4-2.  On the subsequent face off, Michigan’s Lott beats DiGiacomo and Lott picks up the ground ball.  Lott runs down the field and hits McCormick with a pass and he scores in just 7 seven seconds.  Lott is credited with an assist.  Now the Stags only have a one goal lead-4-3.  Michigan wins the face off via a violation on DiGiacomo.  Michigan commits a quick turnover and the Stags clear.  Sophomore Attack Tristian Sperry takes a shot that is saved by Michigan’s Logan and Sperry gets the rebound via a ground ball.  When Sperry gets the ground ball, he is slashed by the Wolverine’s Keady and he receives a one minute penalty with 58 seonds left in the period.  The Stags man up unit comes on the field and is on fire.   Snow takes two wide shots with good backup.  Greenfield takes a wide shot and the Stags retain the ball.  Super Sophomore Colin McLindon takes a shot that is saved by Logan.  Junior Attack Alex Cramer is getting a lot of playing time in this game for the first time this season gets the ground ball but a turnover is committed and the period ends with  Michigan holding the ball.  Since the penalty still has 2 seconds left on the clock, with Michigan holding the ball, the Wolverines will start the second period with ball near their crease.  The Stags lead 4-3 at the end of the period.

The Wolverines start the second quarter  outside the box goal line extended.  The Stags’ offense is aggressively playing defense and creates a turnover but the offense turns the ball over back to Michigan.  The Wolverines pick up the ground ball and Fairfield’s Barry is called for a one minute slashing penalty with 14:13 in the period.  Michigan gets a free clear and starts their man up offense.  Michigan gets only one wide shot off 27 seconds into the penalty. But a pushing penalty for 30 seconds is called on Senior Defender Matt Rubertone at 13:45.  Now the Stags are down two men for 30 seconds.  Michigan works the ball around the box defense and Peter Kraus ties the game at 4-4 with 13:13 remaining in the period.  Mike Hernandez gets credited with an assist.  The Stags’ DiGiacomo wins the face off and Johnson picks up the ground ball and starts the Stags offense.  Both teams are playing strong defense for the next few minutes with the teams taking a few shots that do not score and have turnovers.  At 8:46 on a Fairfield clear, the Wolverines are caught with too many men on the field and are assessed a 30 second technical penalty.  (The officials were confused but finally got the call right. It was that kind of night for the officials). The Stags man up unit comes on the field shooting but Snow goes wide and Greenfield is stopped by Michigan’s Logan.  Michigan clears to kill the penalty and takes the ball downfield.  Their attack takes a shot that goes wide and a minute later Senior D Middie Gordie Wells creates a turnover.  Murphy gets the ground ball and starts the clear.  The Stags’ offense is patiently working the ball and at 5:03 Junior Attack Alex Creamer cuts and Johnson hits him in stride.  Creamer gets his first goal of the 2013 season with Johnson getting the assist to put Fairfield back in the lead by a 5-4 score.  DiGiacomo wins his second consecutive face off and Wells gets to the ground ball to set the Stags’ offense.  With Stags’ offense working hard probing the Michigan defense, Snow (he can’t buy a goal tonight!) puts a shot on net but Michigan’s Logan makes the save.  At 3:32, the Wolverines’ Charlie Keady is called for a pushing foul for a 30 second man up penalty for the Stags.  The EMO unit works the ball around the wheel and Alex Cramer takes a wide shot at the end of the man up but Creamer  is crosses checked by Michigan’s Rob Healy for a one minute penalty at 3:01 left in the period.  Thus the man up unit remains on the field.  The man up unit works the ball around for 30 seconds and Coach Copelan calls his second time out of the half at 2:29.  Out of the timeout, the EMO unit works the ball around to Jordan Greenfield who takes a wide shot. The Stags back up the shot and Creamer gets the loose ground ball.  He works his way around the crease and takes a shot that the Wolverines’ Logan saves.  On the shot, Michigan’s Keady gets another penalty, this time a illegal body check that is unreleaseable for one minute at 1:51.  Now the extra man unit gets into high gear.  McLinden takes a shot that is blocked but Greenfield gets the ground ball and he feeds Snow whose shot is saved by Logan but he gives up the rebound. Snow gets the rebound and passes to Warden who gets his second goal of the night with Snow getting credited for the assist.  Goal comes with 1:29 left in the half and the Stags now have a 6-4 lead.  Since the goal was unreleasable, Fairfield still has an extra man for almost 40 seconds.  DiGiacomo again wins the face off and Barry on the wing gets the ground ball.  Michigan defends the rest of the penalty but the Stags keep the ball on offense.  Snow takes another wide shot and the ball gets to Greenfield whose shot is blocked.  Michigan clears and calls a time out with 27 seconds left in the half to set up the final shot of the period.  After the timeout, the Stags defense plays tight and allows only a weak shot with no time on the clock that goes wide.  Stags go into halftime with a 6-4 lead.

The third period face off is won by Michigan’s Lott and teammate Chase Brown gets the ground ball.  The Michigan’s offense take a wide shot 15 seconds into the half and then with 14:12 showing on the clock the Wolverines’ Krause gets his second goal of the day unassisted.  The Stags’ lead is cut to 6-5.  Michigan wins the second face off of the second half and for the next 5 minutes the action is back and forth between the two teams.  At 9:29 left in the quarter, Michigan makes a turnover and the Stags quickly  capitalize on the mistake.  Snow gets the ground ball and passes the ball to Sperry.  Sperry feds the cutting Greenfield for a picture perfect goal at 9:25.  Stags regain a two goal lead now by a 7-5 margin.  Michigan comes right back by winning the face off and getting an unassisted goal by Hernandez cutting the lead to 7-6.  Play continues for the next 5 minutes with both squads taking shots that do not find the back of the net and turnovers.  With 5:44 remaining in the period, Fairfield’s Snow is called for a slashing penalty and is given a one minute penalty.  Michigan’s man up unit has a quick turnover but the Stags turn the ball back over to the Wolverines.  Michigan’s Hernandez gets his second assist of the day feeding Thomas Paras for a man up goal to tie the score at 7-7 with 4:55 remaining in the period.  Michigan’s Lott wins the face off and Michigan goes on the attack.  The Stags’ Junior defender Toby Armour causes a Michigan turnover and Perraut gets the loose ground ball and he is pushed by David Joseph of Michigan for a 30 second penalty.  The Stags’ extra man unit gets one shot off by Snow which is saved by Logan.  Warden gets to the ground ball and he is held by the Wolverines’s Sean Sutton for a 30 second penalty.  McLindon takes a quick shot for the extra man team but Logan saves.  Junior Attack Nick Guida gets the rebound ground ball.  Guida passes to Snow who gets the ball to Greenfield who scores his third goal of the day.  The man up unit has two goals on the day and breaks the tie to lead the game 8-7 with 3:39 left in the period.  Snow may not be able to buy a goal but this is his second assist in the game and he has two ground balls to his credit.  Michigan gets the face off and sets up their offense.  Over the next 90 plus seconds, Michigan takes three wide shots but nothing on the cage.  The officials have yet to call one shot warning the entire game.  Think they want to get our of the cold and get home early.  Yes Steve-they really had a bad night!!  With 58 seconds left in the period, the Wolverines’ have a turnover but the Stags fail to clear.  With 37 seconds left in the period, Fairfield has a turnover on the failed clear but Michigan can not get a shot before the period ends.  Stags lead 8-7 with 15 minutes left in the game.

On the face off to start the fourth quarter , Fairfield’s Armour is called for a 30 second illegal procedure penalty.  Michigan’s man up unit gets off one shot that Murphy saves.  The Stags’ Perraut gets the ground ball and the Stags offense goes to work.  Coach Copelan calls a time out with 13:16  left in the game.  Out of the timeout, the  Stags respond to Coach Copelan’s offensive play-making and Sperry scores unassisted with12:55 showing on the clock.  Now the Stags push the lead back to two goals.   Michigan wins the next face off and starts their offense.  After working the ball around with no 30 second shot warning, the ball get loose and Michigan’s David Joseph picks up the loose ball and scores unassisted to cut the lead back to one goal, 9-8 at 11:56.  Fairfield’s coaches now send out Freshman Pierce Hyldahl out to the the face off circle.  He cleanly beats Michigan’s Lott and gets the ground ball he created to Snow.  Snow goes to the cage and for the first time on the night, Snow’s shot finds the back of the net!  Snow scored unassisted but Hyldahl’s face off win and getting the ground ball is HUGE!  It only took the Stags 11 seconds to respond to the Michigan goal and the lead is back to two goals.  Hyldahl takes the face off and again beats Michigan’s Lott.  Both teams turn over the ball in the next minute and at 10:18 left in the game, Michigan’s Keady gets a one minute cross checking penalty that is unreleasable.  This is the third personal foul by Keady during the contest.  The Stags’ EMO takes the field but they turn the ball over but Michigan returns the favor and turns the ball over back to Fairfield.  With only a few seconds left on the unreleasable penalty, the Stags can not get a shot off during the man up.  With both teams at even strength, a Greenfield shot goes wide and the Wolverines clear the ball.  A minute later, the Michigan offense turns the ball over and Fairfield’s Murphy gets the ground ball and starts the clear.  Not content to hold the ball, the Fairfield offensive unit is shooting to make it a three goal lead.  First, Warden’s shot is stopped by Logan but the Stags retain the ball.  Snow shoots wide with seven minutes left in the game.  Fifthteen seconds later Sperry’s shot goes wide and at 5:51 Snow’s shot is saved by Michigan’s Logan who starts a successful Wolverine lead.  With 4:57 left on the clock, the Wolverine’s start shooting.  Murphy makes the save on the first shot, the second shot goes wide and with 3:52 the next Michigan’s shot is blocked.  Fairfield’s McLinden gets the ground ball but Michigan’s defense causes him to turn the ball over.  Michigan settles its offense and they work the ball around for the next 45 seconds not having to worry about getting a 30 second shot warning and the Stags’ defense is preventing any shot attempts.  At 2:46 remaining, Michigan’s offense starts shooting and Fairfield’s Murphy is up to the task.  He saves the first shot from Michigan’s Meter but Michigan keeps the ball.  Meter’s second shot at 2:19 is saved but Michigan still has the ball.  At 1:39, Meter shoots again and Murphy stops him again.  Michigan still has the ball as the Stags can not get the ball to clear the defensive zone.  With 57 seconds left, Meter shoots high and in the scramble for the ball, Meter gets the ground ball.   Meter again shoots with 37 seconds left but Murphy makes the big save.  On Meter’s shot he is crossed checked by Marshall.  The Stags will be a man down for the rest of the game if they can stop Michigan from scoring.  The Stags man down defense works hard and Michigan turns the ball over with 22 seconds left.  Murphy picks up the ground ball and just runs around behind his cage to kill the clock knowing that he did not have to get the ball in the offensive zone goal box  in the allotted 30 seconds rule for college lacrosse.  A hard fought tough victory with the Stags winning by a 10-8 margin.

Stars of the Game:  Eric Greenfield continues his great 2013 season with three goals and getting four ground balls.  This shows he is not only shooting the ball but doing the little things to contribute to the Stags’s victory.  Eric Warden got two key goals off of three shots including the first goal of the game and a caused turnover.  Sam Snow despite his tough shooting night got a goal, two assist and two ground balls showing his overall game.  Tristian Sperry had a goal, an assist and also had four ground balls.  Great game for Tristian.  Greg Perraut has three ground balls and Senior Defender Dan Niebler in his first start this season had a strong game and got credited with one ground ball.  Goalkeeper Jack Murphy had 10 saves, six ground balls and one caused turnover.  In limited action but with a huge face off win coming off the bench was Pierce Hyldahl. He gets the big star of the game notice.   Michigan’s stars were David McCormick with two goals, Peter Kraus with two goals and Mike Hernandez with one goal and two assists.  Michigan’s goalkeeper Gerald Logan had an outstanding night with 17 saves and four ground balls.  He prevented the Stags from running away with the game.

Fairfield outshot Michigan by a 40 to 31 margin.  The Stags won the ground ball game by a getting to 36 gbs versus 30 gbs for the Wolverines.  Michigan has 23 turnovers but the Stags only turned the ball over 16 times.  Both teams got two extra man goals with Michigan having five chances and Fairfield having 9 opportunities.  Michigan won the face off war getting 13 wins out of 20 chances and the Stags getting 7 face off wins in the 20 game face offs.

The Stags home stand continues on Tuesday afternoon at 4 PM when Quinnipiac College from Hamden, CT comes to Alumni Field.  Quinnipiac lost to intrastate rival Hartford on Saturday but Bobcats out of the North Eastern Conference always gives the Stags a tough contest.  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-The Fairfield Stags will play under the lights on Thursday March 14th at 7 PM in its ECAC Lacrosse League season opener against the newest member of the ECAC Lacrosse League, the University of Michigan Wolverines.  Fairfield comes into the game with 3-3 overall record while Michigan has an overall record of 0-6 and 0-2 in the ECAC.  Michigan joined the ranks  of Division 1 Lacrosse last season and is playing its first season in the ECAC.  The Wolverines were a very strong club team for many years including winning several National Club Championships.  It is widely believed once the Michigan Athletic Machine is let loose on the sport of lacrosse, the Wolverines will enjoy many successful NCAA Division 1 seasons.

It has been a rough start to the 2013 season for Michigan.  They opened the season at home against #15 ranked Penn State and lost by a 11-6 score.  Michigan then traveled to Kentucky to play its first ECAC contest against Bellarmine University and lost this game by a 12-6 margin.  The Wolverines then traveled to Baltimore take on the national powerhouse of Johns Hopkins and ended up on the short end of 17-8 score. Army then traveled to Ann Arbor and the Cadets won the game by a 12-1 score.  In another non league contest, the Wolverines took on the High Point in North Carolina and lost a close one by a 13-10 score.  Last Saturday, they played their second ECAC game and lost to Hobart by a 11-7 score.

Michigan started slow against Hobart.  The Statesmen got a two goal lead over Michigan in the first quarter but the Wolverines got a goal to cut the lead to 2-1.  Hobart lead 3-2 in the early second period and Michigan went into the halftime break down 4-2.  Michigan came out strong in the third quarter with a three goal run to get 5-4 lead using two man up goals to get the lead with 12:04 on the clock.  But Hobart then went on a 5 goal run to end the third period and start the fourth stanza.  Wolverines got another man up goal  with 4:07 left in the game to cut the lead to 9-6 but eventually losing to Hobart by a 11-7 final score.  Sophomore Kevin Wylie made his Michigan debut in the Hobart game at the face off circle winning 11 of 22 draws.

The Wolverines have scored 38 goals in 2013 after taking 179 shots for a 6.33 goals scored per game with a shot percentage of .212.  Their opponents have scored 76 goals off of 269 shots for 12.67 goals per game on a .283 shot percentage.  Wolverines has been taking 29.8 shots per game and their opponents have taken 44.8 shots per game.  Michigan has scored 19 goals with an assist and the opposition have scored 57 goals via the assist.  Both Michigan and their opponents have both scored 19 times this season unassisted.  Michigan is beating their opponents in the number of man up goals with the Wolverines getting 8 goals out of 28 attempts .296 conversion rate while their opponents have scored 6 man up goals out of 23 chances for a .286 conversion rate.  Michigan’s opponents have scored 2 goals this year when the opponent was man down.  Michigan has scored 11 goals in the fourth quarter and 10 goals in the second period.  The first period has seen the Wolverines score 9 goals and 8 goals in the third period.  Their opponents have scored 20 goals in both the second and fourth quarter.  The first period has seen the opponents have scored 19 times and 17 times in the third period.

The Wolverines have gotten to 155 ground balls in 2013 and their opponents have gotten to 226 turnovers.  Michigan have had 98 turnovers and their opponents turned the ball over 85 times.   Michigan has created 47 caused turnovers and their opponents have turned Michigan over 38 times.  The Wolverines have won 51 out of 136 face offs for a  .375 winning otheir opponents have won 85 of 136 face offs for a .625 winning percentage. The Wolverines have been penalized 23 times this season and their opponents have had 28 flag downs.

Leading the Wolverines in scoring is Kyle Jackson with 9 goals and 6 assists for 15 points.  Second in scoring is Mike Herandez with 9 points of which were five goals and four assists.  David McCormack has six goals and one assist for seven points.  Three players have five points are David Joseph, Thomas Paras and Peter Kraus.  Gerald Logan has played 354 plus minutes in goal this season.  He has allowed 75 goals with a 12.68 goals against average.  Logan has made 102 saves and has a .576 save percentage.  Dylan Westerhold has played five plus minutes in one game and allowed one goal.

Fairfield has scored 51 goals this year after taking 200 shot attempts for a 8.50 goals per game average and a .255 shot percentage.  Their opponents have scored 55 goals with the opposition has taken 234 shot attempts for a 9.17 goals per game average and a.235 shot percentage. Fairfield has taken 33.3 shots per game and the opponents are averaging 39.0 shots per game.  The Stags have gotten 28 goals via an assist and 23 unassisted goals while the opponents have 25 goals via the assist and 30 unassisted goals.  Fairfield have converted seven extra man goals this season going 7-28 this season for .250 conversion rate while the opponents have scored 7 goals in 21 attempts for a .333 conversion rate. The Stags went 3-9 with the extra man unit against Yale.

Fairfield has gotten to 180 ground balls and the opponents have scooped up 217 ground balls.  The Stags have turned the ball over 91 times this year while the opponents are turning the ball over 87 times.  Fairfield’s defense has caused 40 turnovers this season and the opponents have caused the Stags to turn the ball over 54 times.  In the face off circle, Fairfield has won 47 of 125 attempts for a .376 winning percentage and the opponents have been successful 78 times out of 125 chances for a .624 winning percentage.  The Stags have been successful on .835 percentage  of their clears and the opposition has cleared the ball with a .812 percentage. Fairfield has been penalized 24 times this season and the opponents have been flagged 28 times.

The second and fourth periods have been the most successful for the Stags with 14 goals being scored.  The opening stanza has seen Fairfield score 13 times in the 2013 campaign and ten goals in the third period.  The opponents best scoring period is the final quarter with 21 goals and the second period with 14 goals.  Opponents have scored 12 times in the  third quarter and eight times in the first period.

Leading the Stags in scoring are Jordan Greenfield with 12 goals and 5 assists for 17 points and Sam Snow is second on the team with 13 goals and three assist for 16 points.  Super Soph Colin McLinden has four goals and eight assists for twelve points.  Nick Guida also has eight points with six goals and two assists. Tristian Sperry now has 7 points with six goals and one assist. Super Frosh TJ Neubauer has so far four goals and two assists for six points.  Marshall Johnson has five points with three goals and two assists along with Eric Warden who has one goal and four assists for five points.  Jack Murphy has played all 360 minutes in goal this year. He has allowed 55 goals for a 9.17 goals against average and getting 78 saves for a .586 save percentage.  Murphy has faced 234 shots so far in this season.

What to expect in this game?  I hate to say that I see a Fairfield blowout.  The Wolverines have played tough against Hopkins for a half and only the High Point and Hobart games have been close.  A game like this  makes me uneasy. I am confident for a Stags win but got to feel playing at home under the lights should give the team an extra lift.  Think Jordan Greenfield and Sam Snow should have multiple goals games.  Expect Freshmen Conor Dalton and Paul Heller to have some playing time and get their first Stags career goals.  I will be attending the game and will give you a final score report when I return from Fairfield.  GO STAGS!  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse- On a beautiful pre spring day of 50 plus degrees and sunny skies at Reese Stadium with lots of snow piles around the field after the Friday snow storm, Reese Stadium is a lacrosse and soccer only field,  on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, CT, the #19/#17 Fairfield Stags lost to the #20 Yale Bulldogs by a 12 to 8 score.  Yale came back from a 4-1 and 5-3 deficit to beat the Stags.   Fairfield has never beaten Yale in seven games between the two schools since the series started in 1996.

No surprises in the starting lineup for the Stags against Yale as D Long Pole Toby Armour was a starter making a recovery from last Saturday’s last minute ankle injury against UMBC.  The game started with Michael Roe taking the starting face off against the Bulldogs’ Dylan Levings.  Levings wins the face off, picks up the ground ball and passes to Harry Kucharczyk who shoots right away.  Fairfield’s Jack Murphy makes the save and the first clear of the day for Fairfield is successful.  The Fairfield offense starts its initial attack but commits a turnover and the Elis clear the ball.  Frosh TJ Neubauer draws a flag for interference with 13:13 showing on the clock for a 30 second penalty.  Yale man up unit hits a post and retains the ball and Fairfield kills the penalty.  Yale takes another shot at the 11:59 mark and the Stags’s Murphy makes the save and starts a good clear.  The Stags take two shots and Yale’s goal keeper Eric Natale makes the save on the second shot and the clear is good.  However, Yale is offsides on the clear but none of the officials catch the transgression and when the ball goes out of bounds, the Yale coach calls for a time out to prevent the flag down with 10:21 left in the period.  Fairfield is awarded the out of bound ball and on the restart gets the ball in the offensive zone and starts its offense.  Co-Captain Marshall Johnson takes an unassisted shot with 9:01 in the period and beats Yale’s Natale for a 1-0 Stags lead.  On the play, Yale’s Kucharczyk is called for a cross checking penalty.  So with the man advantage, the Stags’ Roe takes the face off and Yale’s Levings wins the battle. However the Stag’s Armour causes Yale to turn the ball over to start the Stags’ extra man advantage with 45 seconds remaining on the penalty clock.  Coach Copelan calls for a time out to give the EMO unit a play with 8:42 showing on the clock.  Yale’s Natale stops a Jordan Greenfield shot and starts an unsuccessful clear.  Stags pick up a loose ground ball and restarts its offense.  Super Frosh Neubauer takes a rocket shot after receiving a beautiful pass from Eric Warden and TJ hits the back of the net to put the Stags up by a 2-0 margin seven minutes remaining in the first period.  Warden is credited with the assist. Yale’s Levings beats Roe again in the face off circle but Yale makes a quick turnover. The teams trade shots and turnovers for the next three minutes.  Yale takes a shot with 3:55 left in the period and Murphy makes the save but can not hold the ball and Yale’s Kirby Zdrill takes the ball out of the air and fires it past Murphy to cut the Stags’s lead to 2-1 with 3:46 on the clock.  Great save but unfortunate result.  Yale’s Levings once again wins the face off and picks up the ground ball but Yale commits a turnover.  The Stags offense takes over but the officials think the Stags are not going to the cage and call a 30 second shot warning with 2:20 left in the period.  Stags make a turnover and Yale clears and takes a quick shot that Murphy saves and starts the clear.  Fairfield’s offense moves the ball around the wheel trying to find an opening in the Bulldogs’s defense.  Sophomore Tristian Sperry scores off an assist from fellow classmate Nick Guida for a 3-1 Stags lead with 1:08 remaining in the period.  Fairfield’s Lou DiGiacomo comes on the field to take the face off but Yale’s Levings once again wins at the face off X.  Yale works the ball around trying for a last minute goal but the Stags defense of Armour, Greg Perraut and Thomas Lukacovic are up to the task only allowing a weak shot with 5 seconds remaining that Murphy saves and holds the ball to end the period with Fairfield taking a 3-1 lead at the break.

The Stags’ DiGiacomo takes the face off against Yale’s Levings to start the second quarter.  In a wild scramble for the bouncing ball that is touched by several players on both teams, DiGiacomo gets the possession for  fraction of a second and Coach Copelan calls his second timeout of the half at 14:43 on the clock.  Copelan sets up his offense and the Stags’ Super Soph Colin McLinden responds scoring unassisted with 14:25 left in the period for a 4-1 Stags lead.  Yale’s Levings once again beats DiGiacomo on the face off but Yale commits a turnover.  However, the Stags are unable to complete the clear and the Bulldogs’ Zdrill gets his second goal of the game with an assist from Brandon Managan to cut the Stags lead in half by a 4-2 margin with 11:56 on the second period clock.  Once again, Levings beats DiGiacomo at the X and Yale sets up it offense.  At 10:33, Yale’s Zdrill gets loose and scores his third goal of the game to make it a 4-3 game with 10:33 on the clock.  On the goal there is a flag down but the techincal holding call on Fairfield’s Armour is wipped out by the goal.  Freshman Pierce Hyldahl gets his first action the season taking the face off.  The Bulldogs’ Levings is called for a violation and the Stags win its first face off of the day.  Yale’s Kucharczyk gets his second flag of the afternoon for a one minute cross checking penalty.  The Fairfield extra man unit goes to work and Co-Captain Sam Snow hits quickly for a man up goal with an assist from Junior Jordan Greenfield for a 5-3 Stags lead and 10:07 left in the period. Stags’ Hyldahl is at the face off X but Yale’s Levings gets another win and sets up the Bulldogs offense.  At 9:03, Yale’s Conrad Oberbeck scores with an assist from Mangan to make it a 5-4 game.  Once again the Bulldog’s Levings beats Hyldahl at the X.  The Yale coach does not like what he sees with his offense and calls his second timeout of the first half at 8:22.  The Elis offense runs it sets and Colin Flaherty scores unassisted with 7:47 remaining in the first half to tie the score at 5-5.  DiGiacomo is back at the face off X and Yales’ Levings is called for his second violation of the first half.  For the next couple of minutes the teams trade shots and turnovers.  Fairfield’s Freshman Conor Dalton, Neubauer’s high school teammate, sees his first significant action of the season and Dalton takes shot that goes wide.  Yale creates a turnover and sets up its offense.  The Elis take a couple of shots including a save by Murphy but Yale retains the ball.  At the 5:07 mark of the period, Stags’ Sophomore D Long Pole Lukacovic is called for a 60 second slashing penalty.  Yale takes three extra man unit shots that go wide but Yale gets a loose ground ball and scores a goal by Oberbeck with an assist from Shane Thorton for a 6-5 Yale lead with 4:06 left in the period.  The Bulldogs miss getting an extra man goal by one second.  DiGiacomo taking the face off beats Levings with the Stags’ Brian Berry picking up the ground ball.  The teams play the final four minutes with both teams unable to score and  the period ends with Yale in the lead 6-5 at halftime with the Elis on a three goal run.

The third period starts with another face off win by Levings over DiGiacomo.  Yale goes into its offensive set and works the ball around with the Stags playing strong defense.  After about a minute, the Bulldogs take a wide shot but retain the ball.  They commit a turnover at 13:38 and Senior D middie Gordie Wells picks up the ground ball and starts the Stags attack.  A quick shot by  Greenfield is stopped by Yale’s Natale who starts the Elis clear. Yale’s Michael McCormack a long pole defender takes the ball down the field after receiving an outlet pass from Conrad Oberbeck. McCormack scores and Oberbeck gets credited with an assist to push the Yale lead to 7-5 with 12:39 on the clock for the third period.  Yale’s Levings wins the face off because the Stags’s DiGiacomo is called for a violation.  Over the couple of minutes Yale receives a 30 second shot warning and takes a shot.  At 10:05, Yale receives a 30 second penalty for having too many men on the field. With the EMO unit on the field, Greenfield takes a shot that Yale’s Natale saves but the Stags get the rebound only to commit a turnover.  Yale moves the ball downfield quickly and Alexander Otero hits the back of the net with an assist from Kucharcyk to cap a Yale five goal run over two periods for a 8-5 Bulldogs lead with 9:07 remaining in the third period.  On the goal, Fairfield’s Neubauer gets assessed for a one minute cross checking penalty.  Coach Copelan turns to Marshall Johnson to take the face off but Levenings once again wins at the X. With a three goal lead, Yale is in no rush to take a shot.  The Bulldogs after a minute take a shot but Murphy creates a turnover and starts the clear.  Now the Stags offense goes into hyper drive.  Fairfield takes three shots in a 90 second span-one is wide, one is blocked and Yale’s Natale makes a save on the third shot.  On the shot at 6:23, Yale’s Jimmy Craft is called for a one minute slashing penalty.  The extra man unit wastes no time and Snow scores unassisted on a bullet shot at 5:59 to finally get the Stags back on the board again and cuts the Yale lead to 8-6.  Don’t want to sound like a broken record but the Elis Levings now beats DiGiacomo on the face off.  Soph Bryan Barry creates a turnover and gets the ground ball with 4:53 remaining in the third period.  The Stags give the ball back to Yale but Fairfield’s Murphy comes out of the nets to get a ground ball and starts a successful clear.  The Fairfield offense understands it needs to ramp up its game.  In the next 70 seconds of play, a Stags shot is saved by the Bulldogs’ Natale but Fairfield’s Sperry gets the rebound ground ball and keeps the Stags offense alive.  Fairfield’s Greenfield shot gets blocked but Yale gets another one minute illegal body check foul again on Craft.  The man up unit is on fire and two wide shots are taken but the Stags back up the shots.  Sophomore Nick Guida dodges the Yale defense and scores a man up goal unassisted with 1:55 left in the third period.  Back to a one goal game with Yale leading 8-7.  Levings once again wins the face off against DiGiacomo but the Stags’ Junior Defender Perraut causes  Yale to turn the ball over.  Murphy starts the clear and while Junior Eric Warden is picking up a loose ball he is pushed from behind by the Bulldogs’ Kucharczyk  for a thirty second techincal foul with 53 seconds remaining in the period.  Super Frosh Neubauer takes a EMO shot wide that is wide with the penalty clock expiring but he is now slashed by Michael Lipin with 22 seconds remaining in the period. Now Fairfield has a one minute extra man advantage.  Fairfield holds the ball for the remaining 22 seconds of the third period so it will by rule start the fourth quarter with the ball in the offensive zone.  Yale leads by an 8-7 score at the end of three quarters.

Fairfield starts the fourth period with the ball outside the box in the offensive zone.  Snow takes a shot after 6 seconds but Natale makes a critical save.  Sperry gets the rebound but Yale gets a turnover 20 seconds later.  After a failed clear, Yale get ball back and restarts its clear.  Yale takes one quick shot but on the back up they play slow ball to kill the clock.  At 12:55 left in the game, Yale’s Flaherty gets an unassisted goal to make it a two goal lead for a 9-7 score.  On the face off DiGiacomo beats Levenings with the Stags’ Barry getting to the loose ball and gets it into the Fairfield offensive zone.  Super Soph McLinden passes it to Snow who puts it home for a 9-8 Yale lead with 12:15 remaining in the game.  Levings once again beats DiGiacomo on the face off and Yale takes it time on offense.  A Bulldogs shoot a wide shot but on the back up Yale’s Shane Thorton feeds Zdrill for his 4th goal of the day for a 10-8 Yale lead with 11:20 showing on the clock.  Levings again beats DiGiacomo in the face off circle but DiGiacomo causes Levings to turn the ball over.  Fairfield’s McLinden takes a wide shot and Coach Copelan uses his first timeout of the second half.  On the restart after the time out, Fairfield patient offensive unit looks for a seam in the Yale defense.  With 8:51 on the clock, Yale’s Craft gets another one minute slashing penalty for a one minute penalty.  The Stags’ extra man unit gets another chance to tighten the game but only get off one shot with 8:50 showing on the clock and the Elis’  Natale makes the save and starts the clear.  Yale’s offense with a two goal lead is content to work the ball around the wheel.  The Stags’ Murphy makes one save  but Yale continues to hold the ball. Stag’s Lukacovic gets a flag for slashing for one minute with 6:25 on the clock.  Twenty two seconds later, the Yale’s extra man unit scores with Managan getting the man up goal with an assist from Ryan McCarthy for a 11-8 Bulldogs lead.  This time DiGiacomo beats Levings in the face off circle and the Stags’ Barry gets to the loose ball.  Fairfield’s Sperry takes a wide shot but the Stags retain the ball with 5:50 left in the game.  The Stags offense can not get shot off and at 5:05 another penalty is called on Yale.  This time Peter Johnson  for Yale is called for a 30 second holding penalty.  Greenfield gets an extra man shot but Natale saves but the the Stags pounce on the clear attempt and get the ball back.  Snow takes a wide shot with 3;23 left in the game and the Stags get to the loose ball.  With 2:51 left in the game, Sophomore Drew Federico takes a shot that is saved by Natale.   Yale calls timeout with 2:36 on the clock.  On the restart after the timeout, Yale’s clear is taken away by the Stags.  Snow takes another wide shot and after a Stags turnover, the Bulldogs clear.  With the clock ticking away, the entire defense is all over the Bulldogs attackers and Yale’s Managan gets an empty net goal unassisted with 1:43 left in the game giving Yale a 12-8 lead.  On the face off DiGiacomo commits a face off violation. In the remaining 103 seconds, Yale takes one shot which Murphy saves and the clock winds down to zero.

In the end, both teams took 32 shots.  Fairfield’s Murphy was credited with 9 saves and the Bulldogs’ Natale had 12 saves.  Yale won the ground ball battle by a 40-26 margin.  Fairfield had 13 turnovers while Yale committed 15 turnovers.  Yale won 17 of the 23 face offs taken during the game with Levings beating four Stags face off men.  The Stags were successful on 14 of 17 clears while Yale cleared 10 of 16 times with success.  Fairfield hit for three extra man goals out of nine attempts and the Bulldogs got one extra man goal out of four attempts (although they did score one goal one tick after the man up clock finished).

Stars of the game:  Sam Snow scored three goals, two of which were man up goals.   Tristian Sperry got one goal and four ground balls.  Hard working Bryan Barry got four ground balls and one caused turnover.  Jack Murphy had 7 ground balls to go with his 9 saves.  The stars for Yale were Dylan Levings who won 17 of the 23 face offs and got credited with 13 ground balls.  Kirby Zdrill had four goals and three ground balls.  Despite his three penalties, Jimmy Craft got to four ground balls and Ryan McCarthy was credited with 4 ground balls.  Goal keeper Eric Natale had 12 saves on the day.

Seen in the Stands-Attending the game was Coach Will Mraz who’s daughter did not have a game today.  Steve Hinchey ’73 made the trip from Glastonbury, CT as he was not officiating a college lacrosse game today.  Trustee Brian Hull was at the game coming from LI with Paul Huston ’82.  Paul was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for 10 years and is still on the Board.  He is a major supporter of the Stags Lacrosse program.

The Stags open the ECAC League play on Thursday night at 7 PM.  University of Michigan, a new comer to the ECAC Lacrosse League, and in its second Division 1 season, plays the Stags in the first ever meeting between the teams.  Michigan was a Club Lacrosse powerhouse and made the leap to Division 1 play in 2012.  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-The #19/#17 Fairfield Stags play the 2012 Ivy League Champions #20 Yale Bulldogs at 1 PM on Saturday March 9th in New Haven, CT. This game will be the Bulldogs’ season home opener.  The Stags come into the contest with a 3-2 overall record and the Bulldogs sport a 2-1 overall record. The game will be stream live from the Yale Athletic web site for free and will be on live stats.  Will send the links in a separate e-mail the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse.

The Bulldogs opened on the road on February 23rd in Queens, NY and were upset by a 10-9 score by St. Johns.  Yale next traveled to Albany, NY and beat SUNY Albany by a 15-8 margin.  On Tuesday night, the Bulldogs came to Fairfield and played Sacred Heart won by a 14-6 score.

Sacred Heart got off to a 1-0 start and then Yale got two goals for a 2-1 lead after the first period.  Yale outscored Sacred Heart by a 6-1 margin in the second quarter for a 8-2 lead at halftime.  Sacred Heart closed the margin to five goals in the third period to 9-4  with 2:49 remaining.  The Bulldogs closed the third period by a 10-4 score.  Yale beat Scared Heart by 4 goals to 2 goals in the fourth period.  Yale outshot Sacred Heart by a 40-22 margin and a 23-21 advantage for ground balls.  Yale went 2-4 on the extra man while Sacred Heart was 0-3 with an extra man.

Yale’s web site does not give a lot of stats for the opponents.  The Bulldogs have scored 38 goals this season with a 12.67 goals per game advantage for a .286 shot percentage.  The Yale opponents have scored 24 goals with 8.00 goals against average.  The Bulldogs have taken 44.3 shots per game with 133 shots total being taken.  Via the assist 25 goals were scored and 13 goals have been unassisted.  Yale has been successful with an extra man 7 times out of 14 chances for a .500 conversion rate.  Yale has scooped up 94 ground balls and have had 42 turnovers.  The Bulldogs have caused 31 turnovers.  On the face off, Yale have won 40 of the face offs taken in 2013 out of 72 chances for a .556 percentage and they have been successful on the clear with a .925 percentage.

Leading the Bulldogs in scoring is Junior Brandon Mangan who has scored 10 goals and has 6 assists for 16 points.  Sophomore Conrad Oberbeck has 10 goals and 1 assist for eleven points for the 2013 season.  Kirby Zdrill has 6 goals this year and no assists while Colin Flaherty has five points with two goals and three assists. Eric Natale has played 176 plus of the 180 minutes played in goal and has allowed 23 goals.  His goals against average is 7.82. Natale has been credited with 29 saves and has a .558 save percentage.  Jack Meyer made one apperance in goal for 3 plus minutes and allowed one goal.

The Stags played last Saturday and had a good offensive show in beating UMBC 14-9.  Fairfield has scored 43 goal this year after taking 168 shot attempts for a 8.60 goals per game average and a .256 shot percentage.  Their opponents have scored 43 goals with the opposition has taken 202 shot attempts for a 8.60 goals per game average and a.213 shot percentage. First time in doing these write ups that I have seen the Stags and their opponents have the same number of goals and goals per game average. Fairfield has taken 33.6 shots per game and the opponents are averaging 40.4 shots per game.  The Stags have gotten 24 goals via an assist and 19 unassisted goals while the opponents have 18 goals via the assist and 25 unassisted goals.  Fairfield have converted four extra man goal this season going 4-19 this season for .211 conversion rate while the opponents have scored 6 goals in 17 attempts for a .353 conversion rate. The Stags went 1-1 with the extra man unit against UMBC.

Fairfield has gotten to 154 ground balls and the opponents have scooped up 177 ground balls.  The Stags have turned the ball over 78 times this year while the opponents are turning the ball over 72 times.  Fairfield’s defense has caused 32 turnovers this season and the opponents have caused the Stags to turn the ball over 47 times.  In the face off circle, Fairfield has won 41 of 102 attempts for a .402 winning percentage and the opponents have been successful 61 times out of 102 chances for a .598 winning percentage.  The Stags have been successful on .837 percentage  of their clears and the opposition has cleared the ball with a .847 percentage. Fairfield has been penalized 19 times this season and the opponents have been flagged 18 times.

The fourth period has been the most successful for the Stags with 13 goals being scored and 12 goals in the second quarter. The opening stanza has seen Fairfield score ten times in the 2013 campaign and eight goals in the third period.  The opponents best scoring period is also the final quarter with 17 goals and the third period with 10 goals.  Opponents have scored 9 times in the second quarter and seven times in the first period.

Leading the Stags in scoring are Jordan Greenfield with 12 goals and 4 assists for 16 points and Sam Snow is  second on the team with 10 goals and three assist for 13 points.  Super Soph Colin McLinden has three goals and seven assists for ten points.  Nick Guida also has six points with five goals and one assist along with Tristian Sperry who has 6 points with three goals and three assists. Super Frosh TJ Neubauer has so far three goals and two assists for five points.  Marshall Johnson has four points with two goals and two assists along with Eric Warden who has one goal and three assists for four points.  Jack Murphy has played all 300 minutes in goal this year. He has allowed 43 goals for a 8.60 goals against average and getting 69 saves for a .616 save percentage.  Murphy has faced 202 shots so far in this season.

What to expect for this game?  What jumps at me right away is that the bulk of the Yale scoring is coming from two players.  Shut them down and you cut off their scoring.  But 8 different Elis put the ball in the back of the net against Sacred Heart.  Yale is averaging over 12 goals per game.  Yale beat Albany but Albany beat Syracuse and UMass on Tuesday and Albany also lost to Drexel.  What does this tell us?  Anybody can beat anybody in D1 lax!!  Think the teams are closely matched as they are close in the national polls.  This will most likely turn into one of the typical Fairfield lacrosse one or two game differentials.  It is an important game for both teams to protect their national ratings.  We “beat” Yale in the 2011 fall scrimmage.  In addition to stopping the two top scorers, the Stags extra man defense must shut down Yale’s extra man unit with its 50% conversion rate. Look for the Stags tough defense and Murphy’s goal keeping plus the offense of Greenfield and Snow to top the Yale Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-On a chilly 39 degree overcast day (where was the 45 plus degrees and sunny skies?) at Alumni Field, the Fairfield Stags unleashed its firepower and snapped a two game losing streak  beating the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers by a 14 to 9 score.  The Stags were lead by Junior attack man Jordan Greenfield who continues his breakout season with 4 goals and two assists and Junior goal keeper Jack Murphy who was credited with a career high 17 saves with 10 saves in the second half.

The initial face off was won by the Stags’ Michael Roe and the Fairfield offense sets up and is probing the UMBC defense.  The officials call the 30 second warning at the 13:46 mark forcing the Stags to go to the cage.  Sophomore Tristian Sperry takes a high shot that is backed up and the Super Sophomore Colin McLinden puts the Stags up 1-0 with an assist from Jordan Greenfield with 12:46 left in the first period.  UMBC wins the second face off of the day and sets its offense.  Two shots from the Retrievers are saved by Fairfield’s Murphy.  One shot was taken by Zach Linkous who is described by one Stags parent who saw him play in high school that Zack comes off the bus shooting.  Murphy after the second save starts the clear which is good.  For the next three minutes the teams trade shots and turnovers.  At 9:31 the Retrievers fail to complete a clear and the Stags get to the loose ground ball.  Freshman TJ Neubauer shots wide.  Greenfield, who is having a stellar season, gets the ball and fires it past the UMBC’s goal keeper Adam Cohen with 8:08 on the clock for the first period to put the Stags ahead 2-0.  Jordan’s goal is unassisted.  The Stags’ Roe commits a violation on the face off and the UMBC offense takes two wide shots.  Sophomore midfielder Bryan Berry who is improving game by game gets to a ground ball and starts the Fairfield clear by using a give and go with Sperry.  Berry takes the return pass and scores with Sperry getting the assist for a 3-0 Stags lead with 7:06 left in the period.  UMBC now goes on its own three goal run.  After getting another face off win via a violation, the Retrievers set up their offense and at 5:57, David Campbell scores unassisted to cut the Stags lead to 3-1.  The Stags’s Roe wins the next face off but Fairfield’s midfield commits a quick turnover and UMBC’s shooter Linkous scores with an assist from Campbell with 5:12 left in the period, making it a 3-2 game.  Roe wins the subsequent face off and a Stags shot is blocked and UMBC successfully clears the ball.  After a wide shot, UMBC’s Ty Kashur ties the game unassisted with 3:27 to play in the first quarter.  UMBC has the momentum and wins the face off and takes two shots but Murphy is up to the task, making saves on both shots.  Fairfield’s Barry gets another ground ball and starts a good clear for Fairfield but the Stags commit a turnover.  UMBC now has the ball with 1:25 remaining in the period and takes two shots.  The first shot goes wide and the second shot hits the post.  Senior co-captain Marshall Johnson gets the ground ball and quickly gets the ball downfield and the offense works it around to Sperry who dodges and puts the ball in the back of the net with 4 seconds left in the period putting the Stags ahead 4-3.  Sperry’s goal is unassisted and starts a 6 goal run by Fairfield over a three period span.

The second period completely belongs to the Stags.  Roe wins the face off and Fairfield starts on offense.  The first six minutes sees both teams taking shots and turnovers.  With 10:02 left in the period, the Stags offense gets into high gear.  Greenfield takes a wide shot and seconds later the officials hit the Stags with a 30 second warning.  Junior Eric Warden, who does a lot of the heavy lifting for the Stags offense, hits the post but Greenfield gets the ground ball and scores his second goal of the day unassisted.  Fairfield is now in the lead by 5-3 with 9:13 remaining in the period with Greenfield on fire.  Thirteen seconds later after the Stags’ Roe wins the face off, his wing Johnson picks up the ground ball and he drives the cage and puts it past UMBC’s Cohen for a 6-3 Stags lead.  A Fairfield parent comments on the unassisted goal, wish they were all that easy!  The Retrievers coach takes a timeout to cool off the Stags and to regroup his team.  After the timeout, UMBC wins the face off but commits a turnover within a minute. For the next several minutes action is back and forth between the two teams.  With 6:40 left in the period, Warden gets a turnover and Coach Copelan calls his first of two timeouts in the half seven seconds later.  The Stags come out shooting after the time out.  McLinden shoots high, Greenfield hits a post and gets slashed while shooting.  UMBC gets a one minute penalty at 5:31 and the Stags’ man up unit comes on the field.  Fairfield passes the ball around the wheel and a pass gets tipped out of bounds by UMBC except the officials miss the call and award the ball to the Retrievers while the Stags coaches are protesting the call and all the Stags’ parents are groaning.  However, the Stags extra man unit now plays great defense and forces the UMBC player on the restart out of bounds.  On Fairfield’s restart, Greenfield finds Senior co-captain Sam Snow who puts in his first goal of the day with 2 seconds left in the UMBC penalty for an EMO goal at 4:35 left in the period. Stags now lead by a 7-3 score.  Fairfield’s Roe wins the face off and Barry gets the loose ground ball and sets up the Fairfield offense.  The Stags are patient now with a 4 goal lead and keep trying to find weak spots in the UMBC defense.  With 3:14 left in the half, TJ Neubauer gets a pass from McLinden and TJ fires a hard shot into the goal for a 8-3 Stags lead.  I have been debating the last couple of games about naming TJ the 2013 Super Freshman of the team.  What the heck!  He gets the title and I fully expect a lot more goals off his stick in the next four seasons.  UMBC wins the face off and starts it offense.  The Stags defense creates a turnover with Senior middie Gordie Wells getting to the ground ball and making a good clear.  Sophomore Cameron Parker gets his first action of the season and turns the ball over to UMBC but good defense by Parker disrupts the clear and the Stags again have the ball with 1:47  minutes left in the half.  Coach Copelan uses his second timeout to set up a last minute shot.  McLinden gets the shot off with 24 seconds remaining but UMBC’s Cohen makes the save and start the clear.  The Fairfield defense of Toby Armour, Greg Perraut and Tom Lukacovic are up to the task and Murphy saves a last second shot by UMBC to go into halftime with a 8-3 lead and on a 5 goal run.

Michael Roe wins the second half face off and gets the ground ball.  With a five goal lead the Stags offense is being deliberate and trying to find holes in the Retrievers’ defense.  The officials think the Stags are not going to the cage and assess a 30 second warning at 13:54.  Eight seconds later Sperry takes a wide shot.  Greenfield backs up the wide shot and immediately goes to the goal and gets his hat trick unassisted with 13:30 in the period.  Stags now lead 9-3 and completes its 6 goal run and Jordan is not content with his hat trick.  For next three plus minutes the teams play back and forth. With 9:20 left in the period, three Stags surround an offensive UMBC player and flags fly all over the field.  Thought Fairfield would be down two men but only Armour gets penalized.  The officials assess a one minute slashing call and a one minute cross check on Toby.  The man down defense comes out goes to defend a two minute penalty.  UMBC takes two shots with a man up and both shots go wide.  Murphy picks up the ground ball and gets it to Junior Shawn Honovich who is probably the fastest Stag and he sprints the ball down the field with the ball.  Shawn instead of taking the ball behind the cage and killing the balance of two minute penalty, he takes a hard shot but UMBC’S Cohen makes the save and starts the clear.  With 8:10 left in the period, Greenfield gets flagged for a one minute slashing call. Now the Stags are down two men for about 40 seconds.  The Retrievers take advantage and UMBC’s Linkous gets it past Murphy to cut the lead to 9-4.  UMBC’s Joe Lustgarten is credited with an assist and the goal is scored at 7:48.  UMBC wins the face off and takes a shot one minute later and Murphy makes the save and clears the ball.  Greenfield takes a shot with 6:04 on the clock and UMBC’s Cohen makes the save and starts the clear.  At 5:13 of the period, UMBC’s Conor Finch gets his first goal of the day unassisted cutting the Fairfield lead to 9-5.  UMBC wins the face off with Fairfield’s Sophomore Lou DiGiacomo taking over the face off duties from Roe.  The Retrievers turn the ball over and with 5 minutes remaining the period, Sophomore Defender Thomas Lukacovic gets to the ground ball and heads downfield.  It is a long pole defender’s constant daydream to take the ball down the field and have the long pole beat the goal keeper.  However, Thomas’ daydream is foiled when his shot is blocked. Stags retain the ball and move it around while Lukacovic heads back to the defensive zone.  Thirty seconds after Thomas’ shot, Warden shoots wide but the Stags back up is there.  The offense continues to work the ball around, and is rewarded when McLinden hits Sperry with a pass who puts it home for the 10th goal of the day for a 10-5 lead.  Sperry’s assisted goal from McLinden comes with 3:49 on the clock.  Roe is now back in the face off circle but UMBC’s Phil Poe wins the face and picks up the ground ball.  UMBC’s Scott Jones take a quick shot but Murphy makes the save and get the clear stared successfully.  The Stags offense wants another goal.  Johnson takes a shot that is blocked but Jordan Greenfield gets to the ground ball.  Jordan takes a quick shot but UMBC’s Cohen makes the save and gives up the rebound.  Snow gets the ground ball and restarts the offense.  The two Stags captains combine for the 11th goal of the day with Johnson getting the assist with a pass to Snow for his second goal of the game.  Now Fairfield leads 11-5 with just 2:37 left in the third period.  Fairfield’s Roe wins the face off on a UMBC violation and 30 seconds later Neubauer hits the post but he gets his own ground ball.  He passes to Warden who finds Greenfield for a 12-5 Fairfield lead. Jordan’s fourth goal of the day comes with 1:34 left in the period.  UMBC’s Poe beats Roe on the face off but the Retrievers can get one shot off before the period ends.

The fourth quarter starts with DiGiacomo facing UMBC’s Poe in the face off circle with Poe controlling the ball.  UMBC’s offense goes to work and the Retrievers Linkous takes a shot that Murphy saves but Linkous scores after getting a pass from Conor Finch who got the rebound to cut the Fairfield lead to 12-6 with still 14:11 left in the game.  DiGiacomo wins his first face off of the afternoon and McLinden gets the ground ball.  Warden takes a wide shot 45 seconds later.  With the Stags moving the ball around, McLinden gets a ground ball and drives to the cage and puts a shot home unassisted.  Fairfield now leads 13-6 with 13:05 showing on the clock.  DiGiacomo beats Poe in the face off circle again with Johnson who is on the wing getting the ground ball.  With Stags content to move the ball around, Sophomore Nick Guida takes a wide shot with 11:56 on the clock but the Stags back up is there and with 11:30 to play in the game, Snow gets his hat trick with Sophomore Drew Federico getting the assist for a 14-6 Fairfield lead.  This time Poe beats DiGiacomo  in the face off X due to a violation.  UMBC’s Conor Finch gets to a ground ball and scores to cut the Fairfield lead to 14-7.  DiGiacomo again makes a violation at the face off circle and UMBC takes a quick shot that Murphy saves.  The Stags clear is good but the Fairfield attack gives up a turnover and UMBC takes the ball into the offensive zone.  The Retrievers Nat Lewnes gets his only goal of the game unassisted.  Stags now lead with 14-8 with 8:31 still to be played.  Coach Copelan to break the momentum of the Retrievers by calling a timeout.  After the time out, Poe controls the face off. For the next five minutes, both teams’ offenses take shots and the defenses create turnovers.  Stags turnover the ball with 3:04 left in the game, UMBC clears and Finch gets the final goal of the day for his hat trick unassisted to make it a 14-9 game.  The Retrievers win the face off and their coach calls a timeout.  On the start of action after the timeout, the Stags’ Barry creates a UMBC turnover and when he picks up the ground ball he starts a successful clear.  With 1:34 showing on the clock, McLinden hits a post and UMBC’s coach calls his final timeout.  The Retrievers take a couple of wide shots on the restart but the Stags’ Wells creates another UMBC turnover, recovers the loose ground ball and carries the ball downfield to help ice the game.   The only bad news of the day was emerging star defender Armour had to be carried off the field in the final minute of the game with what looks to be a sprained ankle.  Further update later this week.  Not only is Toby playing great defense, Coach Copelan had Armour playing on the wing for several face offs.

Who is going to get the star of the day for the Stags?  We  have lots of stars on this overall good victory.  Leading the Stags with his six points on the day with four goals is Jordan Greenfield.  He continues to lead the team in scoring and gets better every game.  Goal keeper Jack Murphy not only got his career high 17 saves but also had 3 ground balls and the Stags were 20 of 21 in clears.  Sam Snow had a “quiet’ hat trick while Super Soph Colin McLinden had four points, two goals and two assists.  McLinden’s fellow classmate Tristian Sperry recorded two goals and one assist.  Another sophomore Brian Berry came up up with 8 ground balls and one caused turnover.  Berry is quietly leading the second midfield line and playing short stick D middie and becoming a key player for the Stags. The defense of Perraut, Armour, Lukacovic and Dan Niebler all had strong games on Saturday.

The stars for UMBC were the face off specialist Phil Poe with 8 ground balls and winning 16 of 27 face offs.  Conor Finch had three goals and one assist and Zach Linkous also recorded onthree goals.

UMBC out shot the Stags by a 41 to 40 margin and the Stags’ Murphy had 17 saves versus UMBC’s Cohen who had 8 saves.  Fairfield won the ground ball war by a 36 to 32 advantage.  Both teams had one extra man opportunity and converted.  Fairfield had 13 turnovers versus 12 for UMBC.  The Retrievers won the face off battle by taking 16 of the 27 face offs.  The Stags had the advantage in the clears with Fairfield being successful 20 out of 21 times and UMBC had 12 good clears out of 15 chances.

Seen in the Stands-Missing from the first two 2013 post game reports as not many Stags notables were at the Navy and Hofstra games.  On Saturday, Board of Trustee Chairman Bill Atwell P ’09 took in the action.  Bill’s son Chris was an outstanding defender for the Stags.  Coach Copelan’s parents made the trip from the Rochester area and were in the company of Andy’s wife Alaina.  Trustee Brian Hull, a former player and president of the Lax Club came from Long Island to visit his son who is the current president of the Fairfield Club Lacrosse team. Finally, honorary Founder Bob Cyper ventured up the road from Rye, NY to see the Stags play.  Bob usually takes in three or four home games a year.

Special notation-The Stags’ English soccer players and their fans made their 2013 first appearance.  They added a “special’ flavor to the game with their unique cheers and “think” part of their enthusiasm is fueled by liquid breakfasts.

The Stags will be on the road on Saturday March 9th.  They have a contest with the Yale Bulldogs in New Haven, CT at 1 PM.  Yale was the Ivy League Champions in 2012 and played well in the NCAA Tournament last spring. Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-The #13/#14 Fairfield Stags will play on Saturday March 2nd at 1 PM on Alumni Field and entertain the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers.  Currently the Stags have a 2-2 record for the 2013 season and the Retrievers 1-2 record. Last season the two teams played in Baltimore and the Stags won a 10-9 OT thriller.  The Stags will look to get back on track after a two game losing skein and throw away Tuesday’s loss to Hofstra.

The Retrievers of UMBC started the year on February 9th with a road loss to Robert Morris by 12-9 score.  UMBC beat Rutgers in UMBC’s home opener by a 11-7 margin.  On Tuesday night, they traveled cross town and played the National Champion’s Loyola in miserable conditions.  The first quarter saw the Retrievers have its best offensive 1st quarter in the young season with 4 goals coming off 11 shots.  Loyola jumped out to leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 but UMBC tied up the score at 3-3 with 3:44 to play in the quarter.  The Retrievers took their first lead of the game at 4-3 with a goal coming with 23 seconds left in the period.  Loyola and UMBC trades goals early in the second quarter but Loyola scored four of the next five goals to take a 8-6 lead into halftime.  With the teams exchanging goals in the early third quarter, UMBC closed the margin to 9-7 at the 12:19 mark of the third period. Loyola then went on a 10-0 run with eight goals coming in the final 10 minutes of the third quarter and two goals in the final stanza.  The final score was 21-9.

The Retrievers have scored 29 goals off of 101 shots this season for a 9.67 goals scored average with a shot percentage of .287.  Their opponents have scored 40 goals off of 118 shots and 13.33 goals scored average with a .339 shot percentage.  UMBC is averaging 33.7 shots per game and their opponents are averaging 39.3 shots per game.  The Retrievers have scored 16 goals via the assist and 13 unassisted goals.  Their opponents have scored 25 times this season with an assist and 15 unassisted goals.  UMBC’s extra man up unit has scored 2 goals out of 9 chances for a .222 conversion rate.  The opponents have hit the back of the net 4 times with an extra man out of 11 for a .364 conversion rate.  One opponent scored a man down goal on the Retrievers this season.

UMBC has gotten to 89 ground balls this year and their opponents have scooped up 108 ground balls.  They have turned the ball over 89 times while the opponents have had 61 turnovers.  The Retrievers’ defense have caused 36 of the turnovers while the opponent’s defense caused UMBC to turn the ball over 27 times.  The face off unit has won 36 face offs and lost 43 face offs for a .456 wining percentage.  The opposition has won 43 face off and lost 36 face off battles for a .544 winning percentage.  The Retrievers are clearing at a .820 percentage rate and the opponents have cleared the ball with a .846 rate.  UMBC have been flagged 14 times this season while their opponents have cleared the ball a .846 percentage rate.

UMBC has been consistent in scoring by the quarters with 8 goals coming in the first, third and fourth quarters. They have scored 5 goals in the second period.  The opponents have scored 13 goals in the third period and 10 goals in the fourth quarter.  The Retrievers’ opponents have also scored 9 goals in the first period and 8 goals in the second quarter.

Leading UMBC in scoring is Scott Jones who has 8 points this season, seven goals and one assist.  Joe Lustgarten is second on the team with one goal and five assists.  Both Pat Young and Matt Gregorie have scored five goals and no assists this season.  Nat Lewnes has four points-two goals and two assists.  Adam Cohen has been their starting goal keeper playing 165 of the 180 minutes the Retrievers have played.  He has allowed 36 goals and has a 13.09 goals against average.  He has been credited with 27 saves for a .429 save percentage.  Adam has faced 107 shots this season.  Relieving Adam in the fourth quarter of the Loyola game was Wes DeRito.  He played 15 minutes and allowed 4 goals for a 16.00 goals against average.  He was credited with one save for a .200 save percentage.  Loyola took 11 shots on him in the fourth quarter.  The Loyola onslaught really skews the goal keepers numbers.

The Stags are reeling from the upset by Hofstra on Tuesday by a 9-2 score.  Fairfield has scored 29 goal this year after taking 128 shot attempts for a 7.25 goals per game average and a .227 shot percentage.  Their opponents have scored 34 goals with the opposition has taken 161 shot attempts for a 8.50 goals per game average and a.211 shot percentage. Fairfield has taken 32 shots per game and the opponents are averaging 40.2 shots per game.  The Stags have gotten 16 goals via an assist and 13 unassisted goals while the opponents have 15 goals via the assist and 19 unassisted goals.  Fairfield have converted only one extra man goal this season going 3-18 this season for .167 conversion rate while the opponents have scored 5 goals in 16 attempts for a .312 conversion rate. The only good thing about the Hofstra game was that the EMO unit did convert twice in the game and Coach Copelan wants the unit to play faster and move the ball quicker around the wheel.

Fairfield has gotten to 118 ground balls and the opponents have scooped up 145 ground balls.  The Stags have turned the ball over 65 times this year while the opponents are turning the ball over 60 times.  Fairfield’s defense has caused 28 turnovers this season and the opponents have caused the Stags to turn the ball over 41 times.  In the face off circle, Fairfield has won 30 of 75 attempts for a .400 winning percentage and the opponents have been successful 45 times out of 75 chances for a .600 winning percentage.  The Stags have been successful on .807 percentage  of their clears and the opposition has cleared the ball with a .857 percentage. Fairfield has been penalized 16 times this season and the opponents have been flagged 18 times.

The fourth period has been the most successful for the Stags with 11 goals being scored and 8 goals in the second quarter. The opening stanza has seen Fairfield score six times in the 2013 campaign and four goals in the third period.  The opponents best scoring period is also the final quarter with 13 goals and the second period with 9 goals.  Opponents have scored eight times in the third quarter and four time in the first period.

Leading the Stags in scoring are Jordan Greenfield with 8 goals and 2 assists for 10 points and Sam Snow is  with 7 goals and three assist for 10 points.  Super Soph Colin McLinden has one goal and five assists for six points and Nick Guida also has six points with five goals and one assist. Frosh TJ Neubauer has so far two goal and two assists for four points.  Tristian Sperry  has three goals for three points for the year along with Eric Warden who has one goal and two assists.  Jack Murphy has played all 240 minutes in goal this year. He has allowed 34 goals for a 8.50 goals against average and getting 52 saves for a .605 save percentage.  Murphy has faced 161 shots so far in this season

Where do both teams go on Saturday afternoon after their respective big losses on Tuesday?  What did the Loyola loss do to the confidence of the UMBC team?  What did the Hofstra loss do to the Fairfield psyche?  I looked at Robert Morris’ and Rutgers’ results to see if I could spot common opponents and/or trends?  Robert Morris played Detroit and beat them as did Navy. Rutgers has played 2 weak opponents and lost to an improved Air Force (a future ECAC opponent). Will UMBC come into Fairfield all charged up to beat the Stags who they lost to in OT in 2012 and a ranked team?  Looking at the stats, I got to believe the Fairfield defense and goal keeping has an advantage over UMBC.  But, how does the 21 goals scored by Loyola skew the numbers?  I am still mystified how a strong offensive team like Fairfield could be held to two goals on Tuesday.  I expect Coach Copelan will make the necessary changes to boost the offensive production against UMBC.  Will be at the game on Saturday.  Going to have to miss some games down the line as my daughter Claire’s team Ursinus College starts its season next week in Florida.  GO STAGS.  Roger Yergeau ’73

To the Founders and Friends of Fairfield Lacrosse-Under the lights, it is a cloudy and a raw 40 degree plus day at Alumni Field on the campus of Fairfield, the #13/#14 Stags were upset by the unranked Hofstra Pride by a 9-2 score.

The opening face off was won by the Pride and they held the ball for almost the first minute of the game.  At 14:03, the Pride took a shot and Jack Murphy made the initial save and started the clear.  The Stags work the ball around and get a 30 stall call at 12:35.  Sam Snow takes a shot within the 30 second time period and the shot is wide.  Stags recover the ball wide shot but turn the ball over to Hofstra.  The Pride’s Drew Coholan scores the first goal of the game unassisted at 11:32 for a 1-0 score.  Stags’ Michael Roe wins the face off and starts the offense.  Hofstra takes a one minute illegal body check at 10:29 after a Eric Warden shot.  With Coach Andy Copelan urging the extra man offense unit to move the ball quicker, Sam Snow finds Nick Guida who scores at 10:02 to tie the score at 1-1 for a man up goal.  Hofstra wins the face off and the offense takes three shots of which the Stags’ Murphy makes two saves and the Pride hit a post.  Fairfield’s Toby Armour picks up the ground ball and starts a clear that fails.  The Pride takes a shot that Murphy saves.  The rest of the period continues with both teams trading off shots and turnovers.  Fairfield was unable to convert a 30 second man up opportunity at the 5:00.  The period ends with the teams tied at 1-1.

Fairfield’s Roe wins the face off to start the second period.  Fairfield controls the ball for the next three minutes and take six shots that are unable to find the back of the net.  The Stags and the Pride trade turnovers and at the 10 minute mark, Fairfield’s offense takes control.  A Stags shot is blocked and another shot hits the post. At the 9 minute mark, the Pride starts a clear and attackman Tristian Sperry is called for a slashing penalty for a one minute penalty at the 8:04 mark of the second period (to me it is a questionable call and as you know since I officiate I normally do not judge most calls) on the clear.  The Pride’s leading scorer Torin Varn scores the man up goal with assist to take a 2-1 lead with 7:48 left in the first half.  Fairfield wins the face off and controls the ball.  Coach Copelan calls a time out with 6:17 remaining the period.  The Stags do not get off a shot when the time out ends and turns the ball over with 5 minutes showing on the clock.  The Pride’s Varn takes a wide shot  followed by an unassisted goal by Hofstra’s Sam Llinares with 4:20 remaining in the half for a 3-1 lead.  Hofstra wins the face off and takes a couple of wide shots over the next 100 seconds and the goal keeper Murphy gets a gound ball and starts the clear.  The Stags offense works the ball around and takes one shot which is backed up by Fairfield.  Coach Coplan uses his second time out to set up the offense with 1:43 left in the period.  Out of the time out with the Fairfield’s offense being patient, the officials call a 30 second stall on the Stags with 51 seconds left in the half.  Snow takes a wide shot and Hofstra clears and takes a shot with one second left that Murphy saves. Halftime score is 3-1.

Halftime observation-After a terrible first half, many of the parents and I feel that the Stags were are lucky to be down only by two goals and can get right back in the game.  The Hofstra bench is fired up all first half and the Stags bench is quiet.  Everyone expects Coach Copelan to get the troops fired up for the second half and solve the first half offensive woes.

Fairfield wins the opening second half face off but both teams take shots that the goal keepers are saving and turnovers are committed for the first 8 plus minutes of the third period.  Hofstra took a one minute cross check penalty at the 9:37 mark of the period.  The Stags’ EMO team comes out on the field and commits a turnover in the first 20 seconds of the man up. Hofstra just runs around the field after clearing the ball and kills that chance to half the lead.  At 6:22 left in the period, Hofstra’s Brian von Bargen scores unassisted to push the Hofstra lead to 4-1.  The Stags’s Roe wins the next face off but the offense commits a turnover after controlling the ball for a minute and does not get a shot off.  Hofstra clears and the officials call a tripping penalty for one minute on Fairfield’s Greg Perraut at 5:17.  Fairfield defense holds and Matt Rubetone picks up the loose ground ball, starts the clear and the Stags successfully kill this penalty.  The Stags turn the ball over again after not taking any shots and the Pride’s Adrian Sorichetti hits the back of the net with an assist from Lance Yapor at 2:56 to push the lead to 5-1.  The Pride wins the face off and probes offensively for a minute before calling a timeout with 1:54 left in the period.  After the timeout, the Pride takes a shot and Murphy saves and starts the clear.  On the clear, Hofstra’s Tyler Johnson makes a vicious hit  and gets called for a cross checking at 1:16.  After getting up from the hit, the Pride’s Johnson plays to his bench and gets to the sideline to enter the penalty box holding out his shirt.  In my opinion, do not understand why the officials did not call at least one if not two unsportsmanlike penalties on Johnson.  No need for that crap in the game of lacrosse.  The Stags’ EMO unit hits for its second goal of the day with Jordan Greenfield getting the score with an assist from Sam Snow with 55 seconds left in the period to cut the lead to 5-2.  A glimmer of hope on a gloomy day.  The Stags’s Roe wins the face off.  If Fairfield can get a goal before the end of the period, this should fire up the team.  The offense works the ball for the next 30 seconds but again the Stags turn the ball over without taking a shot with 13 seconds left in the period.  The Pride start a fast break clear and Hofstra’s John Reicherter puts the ball behind Murphy with 4 seconds left in the period for a 6-2  Hofstra lead.  A dagger in the heart! Instead of going into the fourth behind by maybe two or three goals now the Stags need to overcome a 4 goal lead.

Hofstra wins the final period face off but turns the ball over right away but the Stags now fail to clear the ball.  It is that kind of day for the Stags. Hofstra is content to play slow ball and take the 30 second stall calls for the first ten plus minutes of the final period.  Hofstra takes three shots that do not hit net around the 7:30 mark of the 4th quarter.  The Stags have an offensive flurry with three shots including one that hits the post around the 6 minute mark. Hofstra hits for a seventh goal on the day with 4:10 left in the game unassisted by Llinares.  The Stags win the face off but turns the ball over with no shots.  The Pride clears and the Stags are forced to play a swarming defense.  The officials call a slashing penalty on the Stags Toby Armour at 2:46.  Hofstra’s EMO team gets a goal from Yapor with an assist from Llinares for an 8-2 lead with 2:16 left in the game.  On the score, the Stags Dan Niebler is hit with a one minute unnecssary roughness call and Hofstra is awarded the ball as the flag comes with ball being dead.  At 1:36 in the game, Hofstra’s Varn gets a goal and an assist from Yapor.  Now the lead is 9-2. Hofstra’s Coach Seth Tierney calls a time out.  WHY???  Don’t think the apple falls from the tree from his uncle, Denver’s Bill Tierney.  Sorry for my editorial comment.  The Pride take the face off after the time out and play keep away. With 29 seconds left, Fairfield’s Lukacovic scoops up a loose ball and starts the final clear of the day.  Stags take a couple of high and wide shots and with 9 seconds left Hofstra’s Mark Mullen takes a slashing call. With one tick left the clock, the Stags take a shot that is high.  Final Hofstra 9 Fairfield.

The Stags were out shot 40-26 and both teams had ground balls.  Michael Roe won 8 of 13 face offs at the X.  Jack Murphy had 13 saves and two ground balls.  The Pride’s goal keeper Chris Selva was credited with eight saves and got to six ground balls.  The Stags had 16 turnovers of which 9 were caused by Hofstra versus only eight Pride turnovers and two caused by the Stags.  The offensive leader for Fairfield was Sam Snow with two assists. Leading the Pride was Lance Yapor with one goal and two assists, Sam Llinares with two goals and one assist and  Torin Varn with two goals.

The Stags next play at home on Saturday March 2nd on Alumni Field at 1 PM against the University of Maryland Baltimore County.