With a 2-0 record earned during its spring trip, the men's lacrosse team carried its momentum back East, dominating Stony Brook 15-5 Saturday afternoon in Fairfield, Conn.
With a mere 6-5 lead at halftime, the Big Green recognized that they needed a change of pace to defend their newly-earned place in the top 20 national rankings.
"We really didn't make any changes," Coach Tim Nelson said. "We just wanted to keep doing what we were doing just maybe at a higher level, and we did."
Indeed the Big Green did. Holding Stony Brook to five shots on goal in the second half, Dartmouth displayed defensive play worthy of a national ranking.
"I though it was a good game," goalkeeper Ned Hazard '96 said. "Defensively we played very well. It was definitely our best defensive game of the season."
By putting strong pressure on teams and forcing them to make adjustments early in the game, the Dartmouth team feels it can capture an initial advantage.
"Defensively we try to take teams out of what they like to do offensively," Nelson said. "We did a good job of that on Saturday."
With the outstanding performance of defensive starter Justin Boyd '96, Dartmouth held Stony Brook's leading scorer to one assist and no goals on the afternoon.
The Big Green defense was aided with a solid offense performance that included five goals by Captain Todd Smith '95.
"We really controlled the ball on offense in the second half," Hazard said. "We held the ball better and didn't give them an opportunity to do much."
Conditioning was a major theme in last week's practice, and this extra endurance paid off for the Big Green when the game was on the line.
"I think we were in good physical shape going into the game," Nelson said. "Our good condition was a big reason we out scored them in the second half. We also had a lot more depth and that showed."
The Big Green will continue to work hard today and tomorrow as they prepare for their home opener against Holy Cross, Wednesday at 3 p.m.
"The first home game should be exciting to play in the stadium in front of our home crowd," Hazard said. "We need to start playing better at the beginning of the game and put teams away early."
Although Holy Cross is unranked, Dartmouth is expecting a strong performance from its adversaries.
"They have lost a couple of tough games," Nelson said. "Right now though we have to be more concerned about ourselves. We've been on the bus a long time, so we are excited to play at home this week."
Yet with a 3-0 record, the thoughts of rankings and Ivy titles still linger in the minds of the Big Green players."We've been taking it game by game," Hazard said. "A national ranking is important, but in order to stay ranked, we need to win those games we are suppose to and that means defeating Holy Cross on Wednesday."
