No. 16 Yale Has Showdown at Brown
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The No. 16 Yale men's
lacrosse team, winners of four straight after a 7-5 win at
Providence College on Tuesday, has a very big Ivy League contest
this Saturday at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs (8-2, 2-2 Ivy) have a chance
to make a major statement in the league when they play at Brown
(5-4, 2-1) in their second-to-last Ivy game.
SERIES
Brown leads the series 34-17, including 18-5 at Providence. The
Bears have also taken the last three meetings. The last Yale win
was in 2005 at Brown, a 12-11 decision.
LAST MEETING
Jordan Burke made 15 saves and Thomas Muldoon scored four goals
as Brown won 13-9 at Reese Stadium and improved to 9-1 on the
season. Three different Bulldogs had a pair of goals, including
Matt Miller and Brendan Gibson.
BULLDOGS SLIP PAST PC
Yale scored all three goals in the final frame to take a 7-5 win
on Tuesday. The Blue jumped out to a 4-1 lead after one quarter
with goals from four different players. Despite dominating the
shots (37-15) and face-offs (11 of 16), the visitors went scoreless
over the next 30 minutes -- with 13 turnovers -- and fell behind
after four straight Providence tallies. The Friars did a good job
of holding off Yale's top three point producers, Matt Gibson,
Brendan Gibson (2 points) and Brian Douglass, to one goal each.
Gregory Mahony led the Blue with two tallies, while Colin Still and
Jerome Arnold also hit the net. The game's first goal didn't come
until almost halfway through the first quarter. Brendan Gibson got
the Bulldogs started in a period they dominated with seven more
shots than PC. Max Rodman, who won five of the first six face-offs,
had all that work with 11 wins. Yale goalie Johnathan Falcone saw a
season-low 15 shots, and he needed three saves to earn his eighth
win this spring.
ELI OFFENSE
Four Yale players have hit double digits in goals. Junior A
Brian Douglass has a team-high 27 and ranks eighth in Division I
with 2.89 per game. Sophomore A Matt Gibson leads the Elis with 38
points and is 13th in the country with over four points
per game. Senior captain Brendan Gibson has 16-13-29. Sophomore M
Gregory Mahony has 13-1-14 after notching two goals at Brown.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Junior goalie Johnathan Falcone has every decision in the Yale
net and has a .525 save percentage. His 8.85 GAA is 17th
in Division I.
FACE-OFF
Senior M Max Rodman
is 19th in the country with a .562 face-off mark. He had
a season-high 33 face-offs against Penn, while his low was the next
day with 11 against Detroit. Rookie Cole Yeager (.632) got the
chance to shine against Detroit and won nine of 13.
GROUND BALLS
Junior LSM Patrick Coleman leads the Blue with 37 pick-ups.
Freshman D Michael McCormack is second with 30. These two defenders
have helped the Bulldogs hold their last two opponents to a
combined eight goals.
TEAM RANKINGS
Yale is 13th in faceoffs (.558), ninth in ground balls (35),
22nd in scoring offense (10.8) and 15th in team defense (8.8) among
Division I squads.
2010 HONORS
Yale sophomore Matt Gibson was named March 8 co-Ivy League
Player of the Week after an 11-point weekend in a pair of
victories. Gibson led the Elis to a 13-12 win over No. 12 UMass on
March 5 with a career-high 5-3-8. He earned NEILA Player of the
Week on April 11 after five goals in the 8-3 win at Dartmouth.
Junior Brian Douglass got the Ivy nod on April 5 after a 13-goal,
14-point weekend set against Penn and Detroit. Freshman Peter
Johnson was named Ivy Rookie of the Week on April 11 after helping
the Blue hold the Big Green to three goals.
THE BEARS
Brown has won two straight after beating Penn 12-9 at Franklin
Field on Saturday. The Bears' other Ivy win came against Harvard,
while the only defeat was 9-7 to Princeton.
IVY POWER
Five of the seven Ivy League teams are currently listed in the
USILA top 20 poll. Two schools, Cornell and Princeton, are in the
top 10. Yale, Brown and Harvard are also ranked.
ON THE BENCH
Yale head coach Andy Shay is in his seventh season and brings a
42-47 overall record into Saturday's contest. Shay, a two-time
captain at LeMoyne College, was part of two UMass NCAA
Quarterfinals teams as an assistant coach before coming to
Yale.
COACH NOTES
Yale assistant Graham Niemi, a former Maryland standout, served
as head coach of Team Finland at the 2009 World
Championships… Andy Shay has coached the Irish National
team… Eli assistant Ryan Polley played basketball and
lacrosse (2nd team All-America) at Merrimack.
NEILA
The Bulldogs moved up in the New England rankings and now sit
No. 2.
OH CANADA
The first two Bulldogs recruited from Canada exclusively for
lacrosse are newcomers Kirby Zdrill and Deron Dempster.
ROSTER SPREAD
The Yale roster includes players from 17 states and two
provinces. The most are from New York (9), New Jersey (5) and
Pennsylvania (4). None of the 11 members of the class of 2013 hail
from the same state or province.
REESE RENOVATIONS
The renovation of Reese Stadium, scheduled for completion this
summer, will provide a state-of –the-art facility for both
Yale lacrosse and soccer teams. The renovations include increased
stadium seating, an entry plaza, team rooms and a press box. Recent
improvements included a FieldTurf surface and improved lighting.
Reese Stadium, formerly known as the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium,
is named after former lacrosse players Jason Reese '87 and Jon
Reese '90.
BULLDOGS VS. CANCER
The Yale lacrosse team is organizing a day to raise money for
“Everyone Works for Jack!” This is an endeavor to
support Jack McGetrick, the head lacrosse coach at Bellarmine
University who is battling cancer. On April 24, the Bulldogs
(players and coaches) will have a Noon to 1:30 youth clinic at
Reese Stadium before hosting Bryant in a 7 p.m. game. A donation to
the fund is suggested in lieu of admittance to both events.
Everyone Works For Jack! is the intercollegiate men's lacrosse
coaches association's initial effort to establish a coaches
emergency fund that will be available to members of the coaching
community when they are in financial need. McGetrick has been
the head coach at Bellarmine since its inception in 2004. He spent
11 years as the head coach at the University of Hartford and was
named 1997 national coach-of-the-year by the USILA. McGetrick has
had a large influence on young boys and men playing youth, high
school and collegiate lacrosse on and off the field. The IMLCA is
now working to give back and help McGetrick during this time of
need.
HELMET ROSE
Yale is one of a few schools in the country wearing a Rose
sticker on its helmets in honor of Paul Rose, a lacrosse coach at
four different colleges, who passed away on March 27 after a long
battle with cancer.
Bulldog Bones
Filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
