UMass men's lacrosse gets balanced attack in win over Ohio State
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AMHERST - Two games into his collegiate lacrosse career, highly touted freshman Connor Mooney had yet to crack the scoring column for the University of Massachusetts men's lacrosse team.
But the rookie from Wilbraham broke through on Saturday in dramatic fashion. With the Minutemen holding a tenuous two-goal lead over Ohio State late in the fourth quarter, Mooney scored twice in less than a minute to help propel the No. 11-ranked Minutemen to an 11-9 win over the No. 13 Buckeyes in front of 1,587 fans at Garber Field.
"It was a time where we needed a couple goals," Mooney said. "I was glad to help."
Ohio State (3-1) did a good job controlling high-profile scorers for UMass (3-0). Art Kell had just two goals and an assist, while Will Manny had a single goal. But Mooney and the rest of the offense broke through.
"They defended the heck out of us," UMass coach Greg Cannella said. "The more people you can get involved, the better you're going to be as a team."
The Buckeyes scored the first two goals of both halves and the Minutemen responded each time. The Buckeyes led 2-0 in the first quarter before Anthony Biscardi (two goals) and Kell tallied to tie the game. UMass controlled the second period to take a 5-3 lead at halftime.
Goals by Logan Schuss and Jeff Tundo, whose brothers Gene and Matt played at UMass, tied the game 5 minutes, 25 seconds into the second half. But sophomore Colin Fleming scored back-to-back goals as Ohio State regained the lead. With five goals this season, Fleming has more that he did all last year (three).
Mike Fetterly (one goal, two assists) scored with a minute left in the third to give the Minutemen an 8-5 lead.
Sophomore Bobby Tyler, an Ohio native who grew up rooting for the Buckeyes but was not recruited by them, paid back his home state university for overlooking him. His high shot on the fast break beat Ohio State goalie Greg Dutton to stretch the UMass edge to 9-5 with 1:16 gone in the fourth.
Ohio State got two scores back quickly before Mooney delivered the knockout blow.
Junior midfielder Greg Rushing won 12-of-17 face-offs to help the Minutemen keep momentum throughout the game.
"I got hot in the second half and our offense did a great job controlling the ball," Rushing said. "Face-offs create a lot of momentum whether you're winning them or losing them."
UMass won the ground ball battle 31-24.
"It was a really physical game on both sides of the ball," Rushing said. "Whoever is the more physical team usually gets the most ground balls and whoever gets the most ground balls usually wins the game."
Junior goalie Tim McCormack made six saves for the Minutemen, while Greg Dutton had eight for the Buckeyes.
UMass hosts Brown at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
