An unseasonably warm February Saturday saw the UMass Minutemen host the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Gorillas’ 2016 home opener at the new and improved Garber Field.
The completed renovations, which reportedly cost over $600,000 (and were covered completely by donors), gave an already formidable home field a much-needed face lift. The Minutemen utilized that advantage in full this afternoon as they defeated the #11-ranked Buckeyes by a score of 16-9.
After coming off a season-opening loss at West Point to Army (9-5 scoreline) the Minutemen needed to bounce back strong in their first game in Amherst. The weather cooperated fully (their game against Army was moved up a day due to the record cold last weekend) and the Minutemen took advantage.
While they initially struggled with Ohio State’s attack in the first quarter, they still managed to keep the game close at 4-2 at the end of the 1st. Junior midfielder Gianni Bianchin did start the game off right for the Minutemen with a goal 17 seconds in, but OSU scored four of the next five.
The Gorillas turned the tide to begin the 2nd quarter however as Bianchin scored the first two of four straight goals that put UMass on top 6-4 before the period was half over. Sophomore M Buddy Carr scored the 6th goal for UMass, his first of four on the day. After OSU took a timeout to talk things over the half slowed down a bit and the Bucks ground out two straight goals to tie the score at 6. It looked like it would go into the half that way until UMass picked up a turnover with under 30 seconds to go. The Minutemen picked up the clear, set up their offense, and Junior M Dan Mueller buried a sweet feed from Junior attackman Grant Consoletti to give the Gorillas a 7-6 lead with two seconds remaining in the 1st half.
That was a big goal for UMass, giving them a nice boost of momentum going in to halftime, but the Buckeyes came out in the 2nd half a tied the game again four minutes into the 3rd quarter.
With the game tied at 7, UMass put together the sequence that would effectively put the game away. Thirty seconds after OSU had tied it, Buddy Carr scored his 2nd of the game off a feed from Sophomore A Peter Lindley on the man-up. With the 8-7 lead, Sophomore FOGO Noah Rak won the following draw clean and sprinted down the alley, burying a shot to the low post only five seconds after Carr had scored, giving UMass a 2-goal cushion that felt much bigger. The Gorillas scored twice more before OSU got another goal to end the 3rd, and they outscored the Buckeyes 5-1 in the 4th quarter for a comfortable margin of victory.
A big issue for UMass in the game against Army was time of possession, keyed mainly by the fact that Army won 13 of 18 faceoffs. In all the biggest areas that UMass needed to improve upon going in to this game against Ohio State (time of possession, discipline, ball movement on offense) winning faceoffs was key to all of them.
UMass committed seven penalties against Army to only one for the Black Knights. When you don’t have the ball, you’re far more likely to take penalties. Against Ohio State, UMass committed only four infractions to the Buckeyes two.
UMass allowed 42 shots by the Black Knights last week, 21 of which were on goal. When you don’t have the ball, you’re going to be playing defense most of the game (somebody call John Madden I’ve got one for him!). Last week UMass took 17 shots with nine on goal. This week, UMass took 37 shots with 22 on goal (Ohio State had 24 shots, 18 on goal). Check out the box score from the UMass/Army game for all the stats.
UMass also displayed some serious skill moving the ball on offense today, much better than what the reportedly did at West Point. I did not see the Army game so I do not have a definitive comparison to offer, however the team I saw today, with its crisp passing and excellent finding of the open man, likely would have performed much better than the team that had to claw back to tie Army at 5, only to give up four straight 4th quarter goals and lose.
UMass’ offense worked the ball around beautifully today and found the open man on the crease on more than one occasion. Eight of UMass’ 16 goals today were assisted as compared to only two of Ohio State’s nine. They worked the ball through X effectively and still managed to score on the break and on iso dodges as well, which is exactly the type of balance you need to be successful (and to upset a ranked opponent).
I don’t think enough can be said for the job Rak (8 for 18) and the other Minutemen who faced off did today (Freshman FOGO Tom Meyers was 3 for 4). While Rak’s numbers don’t jump off the page at you, it was a significant improvement over the game at Army, and proof was in the pudding with the way the game played out for the Minutemen. His faceoff win and score really put the dagger in the Buckeyes today and UMass’ overall ability to win draws at a 50% clip (they were 12 for 25 as a team) allowed them to dictate play for long stretches of the game, especially the 2nd and 4th quarters.
The road won’t get easier for UMass coming up, as they have one of the more difficult schedules nationally this year. The good news is the next two are at Garber, including next Saturday’s matchup with the Harvard Crimson. UMass/Harvard games are great matchups every year, and this one should be no different. It won’t be easy but if the Gorillas can do what they did to Ohio State today, they should be able to pick up a win over their in-state rivals next weekend. Look forward to it.
Go U.
Fire The Musket 