The Dartmouth men's lacrosse team beat the University of Hartford 10-6 on Saturday afternoon at neutral-site Trinity College to maintain a strong pace heading into the difficult Ivy League season.
The Big Green improved to 6-1 this season. This is the best start for a Dartmouth men's lacrosse team in eight years. The 1995 squad started out 7-1 led by All-American Brian Merritt '97. But Dartmouth now faces a formidable Ivy schedule.
"We definitely like our chances in the league this year," captain Scott Roslyn '03 said. "Princeton still seems to be on top, but the rest of the teams will all be fairly competitive for those next few spots. With this sort of balance in the league, more than ever it seems that any team can win on any day, and we are looking to be right in the mix."
The Big Green jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with two goals from Jamie Coffin '06, who leads the team with 16 goals in seven games. He has already been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice and registered his bid for a third nomination with a four-goal performance against the Hawks.
Coffin is just three goals shy of last year's freshman standout Ben Grinnell's entire season output of 19. Grinnell was the Big Green's leading scorer in 2002, compiling 28 points to rank 15th in the Ivy League.
At the end of the first quarter the score was 3-1 in Dartmouth's favor.
After goals by Coffin and Russell Radebaugh '04 in the second quarter, the score was 5-2 in the Big Green's favor. With two seconds left in the half, Ryan Danehy '06 scored his first goal of the game giving the Big Green a commanding 6-2 advantage.
Dartmouth added three more goals in the third quarter to extend its lead to 9-2. Hartford cut that lead to 9-6, but the Big Green held off further offensive pressure from the Hawks and won by a final score of 10-6.
Goaltender Andrew Goldstein was credited with the win after a 13-save effort in the Big Green net.
"Hartford never gave up yesterday," Coffin said. "We started real well going up 3-0 in the first quarter, and then 9-2 in the third quarter, but Hartford found a way to get a couple of crucial goals and put some pressure on us to perform well. Their goalie made some great saves, and really kept them alive. However, we held strong and were able to hold off their comeback."
Dartmouth opens its Ivy League schedule next week on the road against the University of Pennsylvania. Penn opened up its Ivy League schedule last week and defeated Harvard 8-6.
Brandon Wright '05, who had a goal against Hartford, commented on the Ivy gauntlet ahead of the Big Green men.
"The Penn game starts the beginning of our second season. With our last six games all against Ivy League teams, a lot of how our season will be remembered will come from these games. The team has been working hard all year, and we are confident going into these games."
Roslyn added, "We know that we have a great opportunity to really turn some heads over the remainder of the season."
The game against Penn will be held this is Sunday at noon on Franklin Field in Philadelphia, PA.
