The Great Lakes Classic

The highly awaited inter-state contest between The University of Michigan and Michigan State University turned out to be quite a disappointment. The game was delayed for over an hour after thunderstorms hit the entire southern half of Michigan. When the game began, Michigan picked up where the weather left off. The Wolverines soaked MSU in goals and led 6-1 before the weather reared its ugly face yet again.

Play picked back up around 10:00pm.

Final Score: UM 21, MSU 9.

Video from SickLax: (notice the lack of smoke-show)

Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Michigan State from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

U Laxin'

If you missed it Sunday, it can be summed up quickly here: Michigan won in front of almost 3,000 Chapman supporters (and a handful of UofM parents) on National television. The the color-commentary was from Kyle Harrison.

Battle of the Uni's
By request of Chapman head coach Mike Wood, Michigan donned it's brand-new maize Adidas jersey's. As always, the bold Michigan helmets looked great in the California night (see Michigan rose bowl games if you need convincing). Likewise, Chapman also showcased their new threads. Overall, the black and grey strips were met with mixed opinions, but I have to say they looked pretty neat.

Kudos to ESPN for covering these two elite MCLA teams! This game is definitely a proud moment for the league. People are beginning to understand what MCLA means for the sport of lacrosse. It is made up of teams who don't necessarily have lacrosse roots, but are working hard to develop players and support in undeveloped lacrosse areas. And as States like California, Texas, Florida and Michigan continue to grow their programs, it can only mean good things for the spread of the sport.

Inside Lacrosse highlights:

Colorado State Highlights

Check out the goal at 1:37. Probably the goal of the year!


Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Colorado State from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

Minnesota Duluth Highlights

Trevor Yealy nets U of M lacrosse record 11 goals in one game! Awesome flow to boot.


Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Minnesota-Duluth (April 3, 2009) from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

If the dog ain't dead, keep kickin' it!

Whoa! What a weekend! With back to back games against elite MCLA teams, the University of Michigan Men's lacrosse team had all the answers for Minnesota Duluth and 4-time MCLA champ, CSU. Led again by scoring sensation, Trevor Yealy, the Wolverines continued their path to perfection.

On Friday night, University of Minnesota Duluth seemed ready to go. For stretching they lined up squarely at midfield, staring down the Wolverines as if to say, "we don't care who you are. We are dulax". But those thoughts of an upset vanished as quickly as the promise of spring in Ann Arbor. Snow fell today, and the Wolverines made it rain on Friday scoring 6 goals in the first frame. By the end of the night, the #1 team made sure that their lead was protected; the defense had been prone to let downs for most of the night. Luckily, Yealy provided his own bailout--putting in 11 in the night.

The following evening, the Wolverines matched up against longtime MCLA powerhouse, Colorado State. Although Yealy's help wasn't as warranted as the previous night, Michigan's futile efforts on the defensive side of the field were transformed into a denying, disciplined game. They sucked the life out of the CSU offense all night and were awarded with a 16-3 victory.

Congrats to the Seniors on the team, many of whom have spent hours upon hours in the weight room, conditioning, practicing and getting ready for that moment. It really was a beautiful sendoff!

Awards:
Player of the Weekend: Sophomore Attackmen, Trevor Yealy.
Why? Yealy netted a UM lacrosse game record 11 goals! I mean, common. How obvious can it get? 11. CSU coach Flip Naumberg commented in his infamous journal that Yealy was quite impressive as CSU watched the game from the sidelines. (Flip also linked the status of UM lacrosse to the fact that they have a dance team--admittedly, the players were impressed as well:


Defensive standouts: Michael Bartomioli
Talk about a difference maker! Bartomioli or "Barto" was everywhere on the field, including in the head of CSU fogo #33. There were numerous incidents that arose due to his intensity and physical play. Lesson learned: nobody messes with the Providence punisher.

Best play: Senior Attackmen, Riley Kearns - Bro Rice
Behind the back shot on the way back to "x".
Made ____ look foolish:
a.) Short stick d-mid
b.) Slide man
c.) goalie
d.) all of the above
Answer: d.) all of the above

Hopefully the guys at Sick lax will produce a video soon so that the world can witness Kearns' creative b-t-b. It should honestly be the companies' promotional video. It's that sick.

That's it from me, more to come soon.

Rounds 1 and 2: Central and BYU

The University of Michigan Lacrosse team made a statement this weekend. In front of a sold-out crowd at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse the Wolverines made sure opponents knew who was #1. With back to back games against lowly Central Michigan and #4 ranked Brigham Young, the team remained unflappable and confident in their pursuit of perfection.

The first game featured an array of UM scorers who peppered outmatched Central Michigan goaltenders. To their credit, the CMU program is showing signs of improvement. The Chippewa's have fielded a large group of players and have a solid attackman #00, who showed swagger despite his teams unfortunate choice of grey poupon-colored headgear. Apparently, this rivalry still needs time to ferment the anger and animosity amonst the two competitive squads.

Here is the first of two highlight reels from Sick Lax:
University of Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Central Michigan University from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

The second game of the weekend deserves more words than the latter mentioned game: Michigan vs. BYU. Rivalry? I guess you could say so. The bad blood dates back to before I picked up a lacrosse stick (yeah, I'm from Michigan if you hadn't guessed). In fact, from 06'-07' Michigan lacrosse was 0-3 vs. the cougars. Fortunately, due to dedication in the weight-room and to intense conditioning, this trend has been reversed. And with Saturday nights solid victory over arch-rival BYU, the trend should surely continue.

Andrew Fowler had another excellent performance, often fending off pesky BYU attackmen and clearing the ball very effectively. Between the pipes he stood large against some of the nations most skilled offensive players. Those players for BYU were overshadowed by the dominant showing of Michigan's top-to-bottom barrage of attackmen. Fueled by Zorovich's timely lefty rips from the island and Yealy's sneaky inside play, the Wolverines continued to show why they are so hard to stop.

The Michigan Daily once again recognized UofM lacrosse efforts in Monday's paper. Here is the article: "Wolverines all business in rivalry game"

In addition, the guys at Sick Lax made this for your viewing pleasure:
University of Michigan vs BYU Men's Lacrosse- 3/28/09 from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

UM: 33 - Eastern Michigan: 8

Posting 33 goals in a less-than-average performance is something that an offensive coach dreams of. On the other hand, spotting eight goals to Eastern Michigan makes them want to vomit. Any way you shake it, Friday night fans should be refunded their money as this was in no way a contest. It was 9-2 at the end of the first quarter. Dave Reinhard was a star again, collecting career-highs in gound balls (21!) and in face-off wins (25). Other notable performances came from the "lettuce-laden", Trevor Yealy, who netted 8 goals--one goal shy of the all-time UM Lacrosse record. Freshman, Rob Healy deserves a shout-out for the monster hit that he delivered towards the end of the game. The future brother-in-law of Mark Hammit got absolutely rocked by the 6' pure meat Freshman. The player who caught the other side of the blow even commended Healy on the hit after the game. Nice guy. Next game: Central Michigan 3/27/09 7pm.

Boxscore

Minnesota game coverage from the Michigan Daily

Finally some coverage of Michigan's lacrosse program in its student paper, the Michigan Daily! In the article, "Men's lacrosse bury gophers in scoring explosion", the author seems to divulge a good knowledge of lacrosse and the riding game (something that is rare amongst school newspaper writers). I hope that Jake continues to produce articles that enlighten readers of the intricacies of lacrosse!

What the author didn't note, however, was the halftime speech given by one of the Minnesota coaches. Roaming outside, my roommate noticed that their team was huddled in the cold (apparently trying to make the Gophers feel comfortable again --the weather was in the mid-30's). Noticeably distressed, the coach blew his lid. He was heard to have said, "Hey, these guys don't sh*t gold!".

Michigan vs. Colorado 3/14/09

After viewing these highlights, you might say that they appear very one-sided. This would be the case, but from the first minute, this game was handily controlled by Michigan. Dave Reinhard dominated at "X" all day. Colorado's response: put two long poles on the wings and have them line up as far on their defensive side as possible. This strategy worked the first play of the game, but fluttered after that. Rhino's flawless execution of his repetoire of moves was like watching a fogo clinic. Backwards, forwards, sideways; it didn't matter.

The one bright-spot that shone for Colorado was its goalie play. However, lizard-like style, sweatpants, and long sleeves could not protect Kevin Moriarty from the onslaught that he was about to receive. I mean, common, long-sleeves in Oosterbaan? The weather isn't exactly inclement!

The final score was posted at 13-4.