The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale advances to NCAA men’s lacrosse title game
Bulldogs march into national title game with rout of Great Danes
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Perhaps the biggest mistake Albany made during Saturday’s NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinal against Yale came just a few seconds into the game.
The Great Danes won the opening faceoff and then promptly turned the ball over on an errant pass. That wasted opportunity proved to be their last bastion of hope.
Yale dominated until the final whistle, a crushing 20-11 victory before 30,616 at Gillette Stadium that brings the Bulldogs within one win of their first NCAA national championship.
The Bulldogs (16-3) play Duke, a 13-8 winner over Maryland in Saturday’s second semifinal, for the title on Monday at noon.
“We didn’t play great,” Albany coach Scott Marr said. “Yale played a lot better.” That was apparent almost immediately. The Bulldogs vaunted offense scored at will against Albany and freshly-minted All-American goalie JD Colarusso. They pumped home four goals in the game’s first 3 minutes and 34 seconds. The lead was up to 7-0 before Albany (16-3) finally got on the board late in the first quarter, and ballooned to 10 at the end of three quarters.
“That surprised me, for sure,” Yale coach Andy Shay said. “But we have to be careful and be humble. That could be fool’s gold. If we’re patting ourselves on the back tonight because of 20 goals, then that could bite us in the behind on Monday. We have to check our humility and get back to work for (Duke.)”
Yale’s attack, as usual, ran through senior AllAmerican Ben Reeves, who scored five goals and four assists to raise his season point total to a nationalbest 111 points (61 goals, 51 assists.)
Reeves, a nightmarish matchup for defenses because of his size (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) and skill, created at will against Albany.
“He’s the total package,” Marr said. “He’s very athletic, he runs with his head up, he sees the entire field. It’s one thing to be a good finisher or feeder. He’s a combination of both. He’s just a great player.”
Monday’s national title game will be a matchup of the nation’s two best players, Reeves and Duke’s Justin Guterding, What’s made Yale so dangerous is the supporting cast around their superstar.
Sophomore Jackson Morrill had three goals and five assists. Junior Matt Gaudet scored on his first five shots and finished with six goals. Eight different players had goals. Colarusso, ranked third in the nation in goals-against average and sixth in save percentage, was yanked in the first quarter. He returned later, but the assault continued. He allowed 15 goals and made six saves.
Albany’s defense, fourth in the country at eight goals-allowed per game, surrendered 34 in two meetings with Yale this season — the Bulldogs took a 14-6 decision on April 22 in New Haven.
“We have so many good guys on offense,” Morrill said. “Guys like (midfielders) Jason Alessi, Jack Tigh, Joe Sessa, (attacker) Lucas Cotler, those guys can do the same exact thing we did today. I don’t think we changed how we played today, we just took advantage of the things that were open. On Monday, if it’s those guys scoring, we’re fine with that. That’s the thing that’s been so great about this season. The offensive guys are so selfless. It’s really good.”
Yale officially has one national championship in lacrosse on its resume, awarded in 1883, well before the institution of the NCAA or a national tournament, because it had the best record in the regular season.
This marks its second trip to the Final Four in history, the last coming in 1990, when it lost in overtime to Loyola (Md.) in the semifinals. No Ivy League team has played for a national title since Cornell lost in the 2009 final to Syracuse; no Ivy has won a championship since Princeton in 2001.
Duke, making its 11th Final Four appearance since 1997, is an established power. It won national titles in 2010, 2013 and 2014.
Yale has scored 14 goals or more seven times in its last nine games, three times scoring at least 20. There’s still room for improvement, Morrill said.
“There’s definitely more,” Morrill said. “Our coaches will let us know what we did wrong. There are definitely things we did wrong and a lot more left on the plate. We’re going to try and play better Monday.”