It was an-all-too familiar script for the Michigan men’s lacrosse team.
Going into halftime down by three goals, the Wolverines (1-3 Big Ten, 5-7 overall) had a good chance to make up the deficit and pull off an upset against perennial lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins (3-1, 6-6) on Saturday.
But, like it did last week against Ohio State, Michigan let the Blue Jays run away with the lead late, as the Wolverines couldn’t finish possessions in the second half or compete with the Johns Hopkins’ faceoff men in the circle, ultimately falling in Baltimore, 16-9.
For the second straight game, only one Michigan player found the back of the net more than once. While the Wolverines possess a wealth of attackers on the offensive end, the lack of a go-to scorer hurt Michigan all season, especially in late-game situations. It was evident again Saturday when the Wolverines’ two leading goal scorers — sophomore attacker Ian King and junior midfielder Kyle Jackson — combined for only one goal.
“We need a couple guys to step up and take over our offense, and that hasn’t really happened,” said Michigan coach John Paul. “It’s not just King, who everyone expects to step up — (King’s) not the type of guy who can create his own shots. He benefits from other guys creating for him, and we’re not getting that consistently.”
The Wolverines scored five of their eight goals in the opening half. Despite limited possession and winning just three of 15 faceoffs, Michigan dialed up the right plays and scored on a Johns Hopkins’ defense that has been largely inconsistent all season.
“We made a commitment to move the ball and dodge hard,” Paul said. “We had a pretty good week of practice executing offensively and anticipating the looks we were going to get.”
After junior midfielder Mike Hernandez scored the Wolverines’ third goal late in the first quarter, the Blue Jays made the switch to backup goalie Eric Schneider, who, on his Senior Day, turned the momentum around for the Blue Jays’ defense, by making 13 saves in 45 minutes of play.
In the second quarter, Michigan scored twice, but was held scoreless for the next 14 minutes. In addition to losing draws, the Wolverines compounded their problems when defenders picked up penalties that allowed the Big Ten’s leading man-up offense opportunities for easy goals.
“They had a lot of unfortunate things go their way in terms of penalties, and we were digging ourselves in a hole there,” said senior attacker David McCormack. “It was definitely a very tightly called game, and it’s tough trying to stay efficient on offense that way.”
Despite continuing to turn the ball over and lose faceoffs in the third quarter, the Wolverines found themselves down just three goals thanks to tallies from Jackson, senior attacker Will Meter and sophomore midfielder Brendan Gaughan.
With Johns Hopkins responding with five unanswered goals and Schneider continuing to deny every Michigan shot, the upset was too far out of reach.
“Our energy wasn’t lacking, but it’s hard to deal with when the ball is rolling the opposite way and you’re not getting the looks you’re going for,” McCormack said. “(Johns Hopkins) was firing back at us. We were trying to give them a nice welcome to the Big Ten, and they took a little offense to that. They just didn’t like us coming onto their turf and trying to give it to them.”
The loss means Michigan’s regular-season finale against Penn State will be a virtual play-in game for the fourth and final spot in the conference tournament.
And with so much on the line next week, the Wolverines will need to utilize the seven days between games to fix the problems that have debilitated them all season long.
“We need to learn from what has happened in the previous weeks and continue to improve,” Paul said. “The fortunate thing is that we have something to play for. We’ve had some disappointments, but we knew (that) no matter what happened today, we beat Penn State next week and we’re in the Big Ten Tournament. We have to sense that motivation this week.”