AMHERST — There were many reasons for Drexel to be motivated Thursday.
The Dragons felt like they probably should have beaten UMass when the teams met in the regular season but let a four-goal halftime lead go to waste in the conference opener. Individually, there were players who were probably disappointed they didn’t receive all-conference honors earlier this week and played to prove everyone wrong. And there was the fact that Drexel was the underdog as the No. 4 seed facing off against the top-seeded Minutemen on Garber Field.
It was the perfect formula for the type of game that played out in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals. Drexel took an early lead and held off UMass’ comeback attempts to hold on for a 15-12 win, ending the Minutemen’s season prematurely.
“When you play against a team that’s hungrier than you, you’re in trouble,” coach Greg Cannella said.
The difference in energy was evident on the opening faceoff, when Tom Meyers easily pushed the ball past Jimmeh Koita to win the draw. As Meyers charged up the field looking to start up the Minutemen’s attack, Koita didn’t give up on the play and slashed the ball free before Meyers could pass it away. The Dragons ran the other way in transition, eventually finishing the ball on a hard shot from Collin Mailman.
It was a pattern that repeated way too often for UMass’ liking in the first quarter. The Minutemen (10-5) won all seven faceoffs in the opening 15 minutes but managed to score one controversial goal and fire two other shots on net. They had just one more shot attempt (8) than turnovers (7) in the first quarter as the Dragons built a comfortable 5-1 advantage.
“They just came out very hard, they were ready to play,” senior midfielder Ben Spencer said. “We lacked some intensity in the early minutes and late minutes of the game, and that set us back.”
UMass was forced to chase for the rest of the game, and the deficit never seemed to drift into a manageable range. The Minutemen scored the first goal of the second quarter but allowed the next four to fall behind by seven with a little more than three minutes left in the half. It became a game of compounding frustration, as UMass struggled to convert stops into clears.
Sean Sconone – who finished with 12 saves in his final game in the cage – made several important stops in the second quarter, including two at point-blank range, but Drexel always seemed to win the ensuing ground balls. Two of the Dragons’ four goals in the pivotal run came on third or fourth chances after Sconone made a save, as Drexel continued to be aggressive on the attack.
“We always stress that to get back in games, little plays are going to equal big plays,” senior defenseman Isaac Paparo said. “Especially being the situations (we were in), we tried to make a home-run play and we got away from the disciplined stuff we talk about every day. That’s where a little bit of the frustration lies.”
There were brief pockets when it felt like UMass was setting up to apply some pressure on Drexel with a run on goals. The Minutemen cut the deficit to three goals twice in the second half but both times couldn’t convert on the subsequent possessions to make the Dragons sweat it out. The third quarter was UMass’ best chance to make some noise after scoring four goals in less than three minutes to cut Drexel’s lead to 11-8 with more than nine minutes remaining.
Yet it took more than six minutes for the next goal, and it was Drexel that tallied. Marshal King snuck a goal past Sean Sconone right before the shot clock expired. During the scoring drought, Drexel goalie Ross Blumenthal was at his best and made two five-alarm saves to preserve the lead at just out of UMass’ grasp. The most heartbreaking for the Minutemen came at the end of the third quarter when Chris Connolly walked in on a rare breakway and had his shot met with Blumenthal’s stick.
“There isn’t always an answer for that,” Spencer said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t roll their way, you might be missing by a little bit, the goalie makes a great save, you can’t control everything. Those opportunities at the end, to have all of those saved, it would have been huge to put in one or two of them, that would have made a difference in the game.”
The Minutemen made the necessary adjustments defensively to give UMass a chance to complete the comeback. The defense was far more aggressive in the second half, and Drexel ended up with 13 of its 19 turnovers over the course of the final 30 minutes. Sconone was on top of his game as well, jumpstarting UMass’ transition game with a couple of key saves and interceptions in critical moments.
“We played a little bit faster on the defensive end,” Paparo said. “(We) communicated with one another, if we’re able to do that, we’ll be able to play in a controlled manner and allow ourselves to play faster and more aggressive.”
However, things began to unravel for the Minutemen both strategically and emotionally as the end of the game loomed.
UMass dropped a pass behind the goal with seven minutes left and Drexel raced the other way with the turnover to score for an 15-11 lead. The Minutemen spent most of the last 5:37 of the game down a man due to three minutes of penalties, time the Dragons used to milk the clock before celebrating an upset.
“I don’t know if we really had the chance to come back in the game,” Cannella said. “Their goalie made some saves in the third and the fourth quarter. We scored on other opportunities, but we fouled and then we let up a couple of goals that we kind of bailed out on, which we can’t do.”