The Dartmouth men's lacrosse team is looking strong with a 5-1 record heading into this weekend's game against the University of Hartford. With a Big Green win over the Hawks, the resulting 6-1 record would be the team's best start in eight years.
In the season's first six games, three players have had over 10 goals. Ben Grinnell '05 leads the team with 15 goals, followed by freshman phenom Jamie Coffin with 12 and captain Scott Roslyn '03 who has netted 11.
The three players will be key to Dartmouth's offensive success in the second half of the season. Here's a quick recap of the men's lacrosse season thus far.
The Big Green traveled to Colgate on the first of March, where Coffin had one goal and three assists in his debut. The Big Green beat the Raiders 10-7 in the season opener.
Next, Dartmouth destroyed Quinnipiac, 20-7. Led by three big scorers -- Coffin, Grinnell and Roslyn -- Dartmouth ran away with the game. Grinnell scored five times and Roslyn tallied four goals.
Coffin exploded with four goals and added five assists, marking the biggest offensive output by a single player in Dartmouth lacrosse since 1997.
Following the offensive explosion versus Quinnipiac, Dartmouth beat Vermont 7-3 in a lower-scoring affair. Goaltender Andrew Goldstein '05 had 11 saves in the win.
At 3-0, the Big Green traveled to Pennsylvania where it faced Lehigh at Haverford. With a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter and the game tied at four, the Big Green netted two quick goals. The Big Green never let go of the lead and won 10-5.
The Big Green next traveled to Baltimore to face No. 20 University of Maryland-Baltimore County. The teams were tied at two at the end of the first quarter, but the second quarter belonged to UMBC. At the half, the Big Green was down 6-3 and never came back. The Big Green suffered its only loss of the season, 14-7.
"We've won the games we are supposed to, but couldn't pull one off against UMBC," defenseman Jesse Klempner '05 said of the Big Green's efforts thus far.
Last Sunday, Dartmouth took on Sacred Heart in Hanover. The Big Green returned to its winning ways, taking out the Pioneers by a 10-5 mark. After this weekend's game with the University of Hartford, the Big Green begins competition among the Ivy League schools.
"The next two games are huge," Klempner said. "Winning our last non-conference game against Hartford will be important this weekend and our first Ivy test at Penn next weekend will be crucial. If we can win those two games we can look forward to a good second half of the year."
The Big Green's next home game is April 12 at Scully-Fahey field versus Cornell.
