Bolstered by four-goal efforts from two of its offensive leaders, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team out-muscled Brown and cruised to a 14-6 victory Saturday in Providence, R.I.
Brad Heritage '06 and Nick Bonacci '07 had their way with the Bears' defense, combining for eight goals on 16 shots.
The conference win balances the Big Green's record, improving its overall mark to 6-6 and its Ivy League record to 2-2.
Dartmouth never trailed in the contest after gaining control of the game with a series of early runs. Bonacci started the scoring three minutes into the game, followed by two goals from Heritage.
A strike from Ryan Orr '08 made the Big Green lead 4-0 before Brown (2-9, 0-4 Ivy) managed their first goal with nine minutes to play in the second quarter. Dartmouth went on to score another seven unanswered goals, amassing an 11-1 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
When asked about the Dartmouth offense's recent efficiency, Heritage attributed some of the improvement to a slight change of strategy, but pointed to the Big Green's mental toughness and ability to avoid fundamental mistakes as the main factor for its recent success.
"The coaching staff has allowed us to dodge a little more frequently which creates unsettled situations and often provides high quality scoring opportunities," he said. "What has really helped us on offense is our execution around the perimeter and making sure that we limit stick and mental errors the best we can."
On the other side of the field, the starting defense of Ned Hillenbrand '07, Ryan O'Connor '07 and Marc Ayala '08 stifled the Brown attack, allowing only 15 shots on goal in four quarters of play. Patrick Marshall '09 saved eight of the 10 shots he faced, and fellow goalie Andrew Mayer '06 made an additional save in a relief appearance.
Marshall has had a difficult job this season. Prior to Saturday's game, the freshman had allowed the Ivy League's highest goals-against average at 11.32 goals/game, but had the highest save-per-game average of all starting Ivy League keepers with 11.2 saves/game.
These statistics indicate that Marshall has seen a flurry of shots come his way this season, which can largely be explained by the learning curve of an inexperienced defense. The Dartmouth defense lost its top two defenders from last year's team, and the current defensive corps has had to learn on the job.
Included in the growing pains have been miscommunications on second-slide responsibilities, which, in turn, can lead to point-blank scoring opportunities. Such occasional miscues are inevitable and have been minimized as the season has progressed.
As of late, the Big Green defense has played with more consistency, which it demonstrated in Saturday's drubbing of the Bears. Heritage takes pride in the progress of the defense, but noted that the offense has a responsibility to alleviate the pressure on the Dartmouth defenders.
"Our defense has improved a great deal this year, but the reason they were so successful on Saturday was because we, as a team, finally put together a full 60 minutes against Brown," the co-captain said. "Life is much easier on the defense when we're effective on offense controlling the ball and efficient in our clearing game."
Saturday's win can keep the Big Green's hopes alive in the Ivy race-- if only a sliver. At 2-2, Dartmouth gains a half-game in the race for the Ivy League title. Before Saturday, Princeton controlled its destiny as it sat atop the Ivy League standings at 3-0. The Tigers lost to Cornell 4-3 in a defensive struggle on Saturday.
With its win, Cornell takes command of the conference with a 4-1 record in the Ivy League, with Princeton in second at 3-1. Penn has finished its Ivy League schedule with a record of 4-2 and is in third place, ahead of Harvard at 3-2.
Dartmouth, in fifth, will need to win its remaining games against Princeton and Harvard to finish at 4-2, and will need Brown to upset Cornell to create a four-way share of the Ivy League title. Cornell can clinch the Ivy League crown with a win over Brown this Saturday.
While an Ivy League title for the Big Green will require several pieces of the puzzle to fall into place, the Dartmouth players are maintaining their "one step at a time" mentality, and are focused on executing the things that are under their control.
"We're not looking at [what needs to happen for Dartmouth to win the Ivy League]," Heritage said. "Our focus is 100 percent on the Princeton Tigers for this weekend's game."
Princeton travels to Hanover on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game will also air on CSTV.
