The Oregon club men’s lacrosse team saw an early first quarter lead dwindle and dissolve heading into halftime, as the visiting Michigan State Spartans chipped away at the Ducks’ 6-1 lead to score six unanswered goals and take a one-goal lead near the end of the first half.
The Spartans only built on that lead, and three second-half Oregon goals would not be enough as the Ducks suffered a painful 14-9 loss Monday night at home.
The first quarter was all Oregon, as it pelted the Spartans with shots and appeared to be cruising to an easy victory.
At the start of the second quarter, Michigan State quickly answered back. An intense offensive attack took its toll on the Ducks’ energy, as they were unable to carry their early momentum.
Oregon couldn’t maintain possession while in the Spartans zone, and turnovers continued to cost the Ducks any chance of slowing the
Spartans’ momentum.
“Turnovers on the offensive end have been plaguing us all season,” head coach Joe
Kerwin said.
At halftime, Oregon looked to get back to the style it played with in the first quarter. However, the Spartans continued to keep the pressure on the Ducks. Two goals in the first three minutes of the third quarter helped provide some cushion for the Spartans’ lead, and the Ducks were never able to regain their early rhythm.
“We obviously let up after the first quarter,” said Oregon attacker Chris Osip, who contributed three goals on the night. “But they really just out-executed us. They did what they wanted to do; we couldn’t do what we wanted to do. On offense especially, we didn’t possess the ball. We didn’t play as a team.”
The Ducks weren’t able to keep up with the energy of the Spartans through much of the game. All signs began to point to a lack of stamina, as Michigan State attackers were able to run by Oregon defenders to find open space allowing them to score.
“We got to work on our conditioning a little bit,” Oregon midfielder Spencer Robertson said. “We had a good lead in the first quarter and we started to dwindle towards the end when everyone started
getting tired.”
Oregon had its chance to cut into the Spartans lead. Both teams spent much of the third quarter continuously changing ends. The Ducks were able to generate a flurry of shots from players like Robertson, who finished the game with two goals and an assist. They were only to be denied numerous times by spectacular saves from Spartans goalie Smith Atwood.
“Every time we would shoot we were shooting low and the goalie had a read on that,” Robertson said. “We had to change our shots up and shoot low, and it seemed like every time we did we scored.”
Oregon seemed to be staging a comeback late in the third quarter when midfielder Evan Merritt took the ball coast-to-coast for a shorthanded goal to cut the deficit to two with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.
Any momentum Oregon had heading into the fourth quarter quickly vanished as three unanswered Spartan goals made the score 13-8, sealing the game.
The emotions of the Ducks appeared to boil over as a crushing hit by defender Michael Gerrard left a Spartan attacker down on the ground for a couple of minutes, resulting in a penalty.
“We need to do a better job of keeping our emotions in check, which kind of goes hand in hand with being a more consistent team,” Osip said. “But we just need to support each other and stay focused on the goal. We can’t let our emotions get the best of us.”
Even though it is early in the season, this loss was a tough pill to swallow for a team outscored 13-3 after the
first quarter.
At times, Oregon appeared to be unstoppable on offense, but was not able to put together a complete game. The Ducks will look to find what worked in the first quarter and carry that into their next contest.
“We had showed really good offense in spurts,” Osip said. “We showed out athleticism. But what we saw is glimpses of what we can do. We just need to be more consistent with it, and more disciplined.”
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Club men’s lacrosse’s strong first quarter can’t put away Spartans
Daily Emerald
March 7, 2011
Michael Ciaglo
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