Optimism is running high on the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team after the team started out the season 1-0 with a 6-2 win over Colgate this past Saturday. Traditionally the team has been extremely strong on defense while struggling a bit more on the offensive side of the field. This year, however, the team expects that will change.
"This is the best team I've seen in my four years here," said co-captain Chris O'Hara '01. "We worked harder in the off-season than ever before and I think we have a chance of turning peoples eyes toward Dartmouth. We have something good going on up here."
Defensively there is little question that Dartmouth will continue to stifle opponents. Led by seniors Alexander Grishman and co-captain Scott Kinum the defensive core remains the same as last year. In the two preseason scrimmage games Dartmouth beat Middlebury 9-4 and tied UMass 6-6. Such low scoring games suggest that the defense is indeed playing well, but also cast some doubt on the offense, which has yet to develop into a prolific scoring machine.
"The best thing our offense did against Colgate was control the ball a lot during the second half. That allowed the defense to take a bit of a rest," said Georges Dyer '01. "We've got some quick new freshman -- Tommy Daniels, Lucas Robertson, Starke Mueler -- that will hopefully make an impact."
"Already though, the offense feels a lot better. We're getting a lot more looks. We've got a lot of the pieces, we just have to put them together," Dyer added.
On Saturday against Colgate, midfielder Schuyler Minert '01 led Dartmouth with two goals an assist. The Red Raiders scored first, just 43 seconds into the game, but Dyer evened up the game 1-1 a minute later. Connor Price '02 scored the only goal in the second quarter to give Dartmouth a 2-1 lead going into the half.
Minert scored his first goal of the day to start off the third period, followed by a goal from O'Hara. Minert scored again to make the score 5-1 as Dartmouth began to run away with the game.
Jake Dwyer '03 scored Dartmouth's final goal of the game while Colgate slid in a second goal in the fourth quarter. Dartmouth goalie Mike Gault '03 made 15 saves on the day.
Up next for Dartmouth is a home game against Albany on March 14. Last year Dartmouth opened up the season 2-0 against Colgate (10-7) and Albany (15-10) before going 0-3 in the following three games.
"The majority of our opponents are in the top 25 in preseason polls this year," noted O'Hara. "We have a feeling that a lot of those teams are ones that we can do well against."
