Dartmouth Falls to No. 1 Yale at Scully-Fahey Field

HANOVER, N.H. – After a close first half, No. 1 Yale scored nine goals in the third to lead the Bulldogs to a 15-5 victory over the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse team at Scully-Fahey Field on Saturday. The Big Green fell to 1-9 and 0-3 in Ivy League play, while the visitors improved to 10-0 and 4-0, clinching a berth in the Ivy Championship.

Dartmouth kept Yale off the board for the first five minutes of the game, thanks in part to a handful of big saves by freshman Joe Balaban, who has been seeing more and more time in net as the season has progressed. With 9:45 to go, Michael Keasey got past Balaban for the first goal of the day. An unassisted tally by junior Wiley Osborne with 2:45 left in the first tied the score at one-all, and that is how it would stay for the remainder of the quarter.

A minute into the second, the Bulldogs broke the tie and soon made it 3-1. There was a five-minute

quiet period, but a man-up goal by the Bulldogs with 6:15 remaining gave the visitors a three-goal lead. Freshman Will Randell cut that edge to two with his third of the season following a pass from Osborne, but a huge save by Balaban resulted in another goal for the Bulldogs when the ball rebounded directly to Michael Bonacci, making it 5-2 in Yale’s favor.

The Bulldogs scored nine unanswered goals and kept the Big Green scoreless for the entirely of the third, giving Yale a 14-2 advantage. Late in the quarter, senior Blair Friedensohn made his first appearance of the afternoon, replacing Balaban in net.

Dartmouth outscored Yale, 3-1, in the third. After 20 minutes of scoreless play, sophomore Jack Korzelius picked up the ball behind the net and, while falling, shot to the left of the goalie (14-3). Yale got one of its own shortly afterwards, but Korzelius scored his second unassisted marker of the quarter with 11:02 to play (15-4). Exactly 10 minutes later, Osborne got his second of the day and 18th of the year – a man-up marker – with the assist going to Randell. 

Yale outshot Dartmouth, 48-27. Balaban had 12 saves, Friedensohn stopped three, and freshman Griffin Miller – who appeared in net for the final 2:33 – did not have to make any saves.

On Saturday, April 16, the Green will head to New Jersey to face Princeton and, the following Tuesday, they will play their final non-conference game of 2016 against UMass Lowell.