UMass men’s lacrosse head coach Greg Cannella needed more saves. In the first game of the season against then-No. 13 Army on Feb. 8 at Garber Field, the Minutemen found themselves down 6-0 after the first 15 minutes. Graduate student goalie Tyler Bluse surrendered all six goals on 11 shots from the Black Knights during that opening quarter, putting UMass in an early hole.

Cannella decided to swap-in freshman goalie Owen Salanger for the Minutemen for the final three quarters and despite still losing the game, 16-9, Cannella saw something from his young netminder during that stretch to name him the starting goalie for UMass moving forward.

“He held it down, he saved the ball,” Cannella said on the decision to go with Salanger. “That’s what you’re asking your goalie to do. He gave us an opportunity to try and get back into the game. We got it to 7-4, we had an opportunity at 7-4 to score a goal and we didn’t. Owen was responsible for hanging in there and giving us that opportunity. We felt confident in him and I think obviously his teammates in front of him felt confident playing behind that and that’s really what you need.”

The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder totaled 13 saves in goal for the Garber Gorillas against Army and has only gotten better. Salanger has been arguably UMass’ most important player during its current streak of seven wins in its last eight games as the freshman has allowed an average of seven goals in that span and is top-10 in the country in both goals-against average (7.54) and save-percentage (.621) categories.

“I think a big strength of mine is my patience,” Salanger said. “I feel like I don’t really fall for any fakes from the outside and I feel like I can really read a shooter when they’re stepping in from the outside. Also just that next-play mentality, if a couple goals go in, just being able to make that next play.”

The Liverpool, New York native quickly established himself as the right choice for Cannella after the Army game following a preseason positional battle between Salanger, Bluse and Ryan Mazzariello. UMass had to replace former Atlantic 10 Co-Goalkeeper of the Year Matt Knote this season, who left the program last spring after compiling the third-most saves in team history (752), across five seasons.

“It was a long process,” Cannella said on the preseason evaluation of the goalies. “Tyler Bluse, who is a fifth-year senior, he was a tremendous leader for us throughout the fall and obviously into the spring and he still is a really good leader for our program. In that spot, you got three guys there, they’re all competing. [Assistant coach] Noah Fossner does a great job with those guys, working with them day in and day out. It’s about evaluating and it’s also about a gut feeling. What do you see every day in practice and then in scrimmages in preseason and you try and make your decisions based on that. We went with the fifth-year senior to start but it was 6-0 there after the first quarter so I felt like we needed a spark there somewhere.”

Salanger is the only freshman out of the three current Gorilla goalkeepers, yet he still had as much of a chance as the other two goalies to snag the starting gig, which helped No. 35 focus even more.

“Knowing that just gave me extra motivation,” Salanger said. “I already had a lot of motivation to try and come and get playing time as soon as I got here. I knew it was a big competition so it just added extra motivation.”

Despite Salanger’s first-year status, Cannella has been familiar with his abilities for some time as Owen’s father, Jeff Salanger, was teammates with Cannella at UMass from 1986-88.

“I think it was an easy thing for us and the family, once we decided that Owen was a guy that we would target,” Cannella said on recruiting Owen. “To know that his dad grew up and played here, the thought of him growing up and being able to play at his alma mater was a really cool thing for the kid. 

“It’s probably the coolest thing about this whole thing is that their family, Jeff’s parents, that I knew back then, are now back again watching their grandson play at the same place their son played, that’s pretty cool,” Cannella added.

What’s even cooler, from the perspective of the Gorillas, is that Salanger has stepped right into Division I college lacrosse and hasn’t looked out of place. Cannella mentioned not every freshman is equipped to handle the pressure of being the last line of defense at that age, making what Salanger has accomplished so far even more impressive.

“I think he’s very steady, in terms of his emotions, as well,” Cannella said. “The goalie position here in Division I is very difficult, a lot of goals that get scored. People are really, really good, good shooters. Again, one goes in, his head doesn’t go down, he’s ready for the next one. You have to have a short memory as a goalie.”

While Salanger has raced out to a 7-1 career record, the UMass keeper knows his college career will be anything but a cakewalk.

“The tiny details matter the most at this level,” Salanger said. “Previous levels, you could get away with tiny things, just not doing the best, but now all the tiny details matter in order to go get a win.”

The Gorillas entered this season cautiously optimistic after losing their top seven scorers from a season ago, but the emergence of Salanger in between the pipes has UMass among the top-20 squads (13th per RPI) in the country during its nonconference slate.