The men's lacrosse team rebounded from a 17-5 weekend loss to Princeton by dominating the University of New Hampshire 15-4yesterday afternoon at Memorial Field.
The Big Green took an early 3-0 lead with two goals shot in from leading scorer Brian Merritt '97. Merritt, now with 40 points on the season, tallied five times for the day.
"He's a real good player and a great athlete," Coach Tim Nelson said. "We try and go inside to him so he can use his talents."
With a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Big Green outscored UNH 3-0 in the second quarter to take a 6-1 halftime lead.
"Our guys were ready to play, which was good," Nelson said. "I thought we dominated them even more than the score showed. We really outplayed them, but we just missed a few shots early in the game."
Dartmouth simply outplayed its opponents with consistent ball handling and strong defense.
"I think we executed our set plays better than we had the past few weeks," John Whelen '98 said. "We were playing good defense and simply out-hustling the other team."
In the second half, the Big Green came out strong, outscoring UNH 5-2 and taking a 11-3 lead, too much for their opponents to make up.
Whelen and Hank Brier '98 both scored late in the fourth quarter to seal the Big Green victory. Whelen, along with Eric Swanson '96, scored twice for Dartmouth, while senior Brian White shot in three.
Co-captain Justin Boyd '96 and senior Eric Welsh were the remaining scorers for the Big Green offense which pressured the UNH goalie into making an amazing 25 saves.
Defensively, the Big Green were as strong as ever. Starting goalie Ned Hazard '96 saved 12, while backup Dave Kosloff '97 kept seven more out of the net for Dartmouth.
"I think we need to shoot the ball a little bit better," Nelson said. "We did a good job all around though."
Dartmouth, now 9-3 and ranked 20th in the nation in this week's USILA poll, will end its regular season at home this Saturday against arch rival Harvard. The game starts at 1:00 p.m. on Memorial Field.
Harvard was pushed out of the top twenty national rankings last week and will be ready to prove themselves better than number 20 Dartmouth. Harvard, 3-2 in the Ivy League, is ranked three in the northeast, while Dartmouth, 2-3 in the Ivy League, is ranked fourth.
"It's going to be a great athletic event," Nelson said. "They are going to be ready to prove they belong a head of us. It will be a war."
Facing three strong Harvard attackmen, the Big Green will need to be ready from the start.
"I think we have to establish ourselves early," Whelen said. "We need to get the ground balls and hustle right away. We need to set the pace of the game and keep the momentum."
