If Dan Patrick were describing the Yale men's lacrosse team's recent performance against both Brown and Rutgers on ESPN's Sportscenter, he would use his patent phrase en fuego. After all, within the last week the squad has knocked off the sixth-ranked Brown Bears, manhandled a Rutgers team to which it lost last year, and moved into the top 20 in the national polls for the first time this season. Everything seems to be coming together at the right time for this team as it strives to put itself into position for a berth in the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Mike Waldvogel attributes the team's recent surge to the "leadership of the seniors on the team. They've realized that we had to step up our team play, and the individuals have been playing together real well as of late." Waldvogel stressed that for the team to continue its winning streak, "we have to take each game one at a time, and maintain the quality of effort and execution that we have put together over our last few games."
Waldvogel commented that his team played "a near perfect game" in its 11-9 defeat of Brown. "We outhustled them on the ground balls, we outshot them, and we displayed great poise. You couldn't ask for a better team effort than that," he said.
Freshman goalie Joe Pilch, SM '99, helped seal the win for the Bulldogs, saving 16 shots, and allowing only two goals to the high-powered Brown offense during the final 20 minutes.
Yale trailed Brown by only a goal after intermission, and by the end of the third quarter, the game was deadlocked at 7-7. In the fourth quarter, Shawn O'Rourke, TD '97, fed Bob Berls, PC '96,who was cutting through the crease, for a critical goal that put the Yale up 8-7, a lead that it would never relinquish.
Brown, down 10-9, had one final chance at the game, when it had the ball with 40 seconds left in the contest. Returning Ivy League Player of the Year David Evans was stripped of the ball by senior Keith Vachris, DC '96, at the restraining line, and Chris Casey, PC '97, carried the ball down the field and dished it to Tom Zaccagnino, BK '96, to put an exclamation-point goal on the victory with three seconds left.
Waldvogel explained his strategy on the last play. "We wanted Keith on Evans and we had hard slides ready to back him up and make Evans dump the ball off. Fortunately for us, Keith made a great play to get the ball and to give us the win."
Zaccagnino, Berls, Brad Graw, SM '99, and O'Rourke tallied two goals each to lead the Yale offense. Defenseman Vincent Ferraro, SY '98, also got into the scoring column when he went coast-to-coast and beat Brown goalie Gregory Cottrano after making many spectacular dodges, marking the first point for an Eli defenseman all season.
In the game against Rutgers last Saturday, Yale jumped out to an 8-3 lead at halftime and never looked back en route to their 14-8 victory. O'Rourke scored seven points (three goals and four assists), while Zaccagnino made six (two goals and four assists), to lead the Bulldog offense. Devon Archer, TD '96, and Berls also tallied three goals each, while Pilch saved 70 percent of his shots to help lead Yale to this impressive victory.
Two individual players who have stepped up their performance to help this team win are attackman Shawn O'Rourke and goalie Joe Pilch.
O'Rourke, scoring 14 points in these two games, earned himself Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the second straight week. O'Rourke attributes his success this season to the strong play of those around him. He humbly notes that "I don't have the assist unless someone else puts the ball in the net." O'Rourke has tallied 16 assists this season to go along with his team-high 18 goals.
Pilch's play in the net has also been critical to the success of the squad this season. Pilch has upped his save percentage to .554 and lowered his goals-against average to 10.73 with these strong recent performances against Brown and Rutgers. Pilch has also been essential in Yale's clearing the ball at almost a rate of 80 percent, one of the team's most impressive statistics.
"The wins that we've been having have been team wins, and the defense has really stepped up its play. As for me, I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to help the team win," Pilch said.
Chris Casey (two goals and an assist vs. Brown) offered the insight that "a big plus for us lately has been the chemistry between our offense and defense. Sometimes, the offense used to play well while the defense was struggling, and other times the offense was struggling while the defense is playing well. Everyone has now picked it up and is doing their job together."
Casey further noted that "our whole season is coming down to the next three games against Army, Harvard, and Dartmouth. If we win all of them, we have an outside shot at achieving our number- one goal of an Ivy League championship and a strong chance of our next goal of making the NCAA tournament."
O'Rourke commented that for the Bulldogs to win these games, the team needs to "keep up what we've been doing; strong mental preparation, intensity, and love for the game."
Yale hosts 15th-ranked Army on Sat., Apr. 13 at 1 p.m. Four out of the team's last six games are at home, which should be a big advantage in the team's bid for the NCAA tournament.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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