For the Michigan men’s lacrosse team, the game was essentially over before it started. The Wolverines fell 12-5 at Delaware on Saturday.

The Wolverines (0-4 ECAC, 0-11 overall) knew going in that establishing a strong offensive tempo would be critical to getting their first win of the season. After the Blue Hens (0-3 CAA, 4-8) scored five straight goals in the first half, Michigan never seemed to find a rhythm in the game.

The Wolverines couldn’t capitalize on an opening faceoff win and had a costly turnover and a failed clear attempt on Delaware’s next offensive possession, leading to the first of three goals on the afternoon for Blue Hens’ attackman Eric Smith.

Smith dominated Michigan all day and finished with three goals, six shots on goal, two ground balls and an assist.

Smith’s goal was the first of five in a row for Delaware, which led 5-0 with 6:18 to play in the first half.

“To be honest, I think it was more of us getting off to a slow start than them getting off to a fast start,” said Michigan coach John Paul. “Part of that was their goalie, but part of it was us not finishing our opportunities early. I think if we had finished our opportunities early we could have come out of that first quarter even or even ahead.”

The Wolverines’ inability to capitalize on scoring chances plagued them throughout the entire game – they got one goal on 16 shots in the first half.

The Michigan offense seemed unable to attack the crease against a Delaware defense that caused 10 turnovers and picked up 18 ground balls in the first half. The Blue Hens’ physical defense also forced the Wolverines to take bad shots from far outside the crease all afternoon.

“Sometimes it is as simple as shooting better,” Paul said. “For us, there is not a huge margin of error right now, and today we were not shooting well, and their goalie was hot.”

After taking a 6-1 lead into halftime, Delaware came out strong to start the second half. The Blue Hens stretched their lead to 11-2 at the end of the third quarter on goals from midfielders Nick Diachenko and Danny Keane – each picking up their third of the contest.

With a nine-goal deficit heading into the fourth quarter, a win seemed out of the picture.

For the second week in a row, though, Michigan finally came to life in the fourth quarter. The Wolverines picked up three goals and outshot the Blue Hens, 10-5, but couldn’t recover from their miserable start.

“It’s been a trademark of ours these first two years, and I am proud of that,” Paul said. “We do play hard, and we play hard for entire games.”