Wolverines fall victim to Pioneers in Denver

The scene in Denver

DENVER – It would have been foolish for Michigan to enter their game against No. 11 Denver expecting a victory. There’s no such thing as a moral victory, but staying competitive, in the grand scheme of things, would have been just that for the Wolverines.

“Obviously, Denver is an elite team and an elite program. In a lot of ways, they’re what we’re trying to become,” said Michigan head coach John Paul. “There are parts of the game that we can control, and there are parts of the game that we can win, and we just didn’t get that done today.”

The Pioneers outscored Michigan in each of the game’s four quarters, and held a 9-3 lead at halftime. An 8-2 Denver run over the course of the second half – aided by winning seven of twelve faceoffs and riding Michigan into a six-for-eleven stretch on clears – slammed the door any any hopes of an upset bid, and Denver prevailed at home, 17-5.

For Michigan to stay in the game, they needed to control the tempo, and keep Denver’s talented offense from having the opportunities they needed to run up a big lead. Unfortunately, Michigan couldn’t control the tempo without possessing the ball, and they didn’t have a chance.

Thanks in large part to their 7/26 performance on faceoffs and an 11/18  success rate on the clear, the Wolverines never had a chance to slow down the pace of play. That played a large role in the blowout loss. However, despite the poor performance on faceoffs, Paul laid no blame on specialist Brian Greiner.

“Our faceoff strategy worked exactly the way we wanted it to work,” said Paul. “We had our wings in the right positions. We had an opportunity to win faceoffs today, we just got killed on ground balls.”

Of course, Michigan’s offense did themselves no favors. The Denver defense game them a few chances, and Michigan’s players were oft-befuddled trying to take advantage. Sophomore midfielder Doug Bryant scored two goals on the day, while Alex Vasileff, Jeff Chu, and Thomas Paras scored one apiece.

Chu’s goal came on a lucky bounce. As he tried to feed David McCormack on the crease, the pass handcuffed McCormack, and the ball ricocheted off the butt of his crosse into the Pioneers’ goal.

“There’s two ways to look at that one,” explained Paul. “One is we forced too many passes in today. That was part of our turnover problem today, and that could just as easily have been a turnover. The other part is that we’re putting ourselves in positions where we can make plays like that, and we’re just not making the plays. To be honest, I’d rather us not make that pass.”

Trevor Yealy, long the offensive star of the Wolverines’ club team was held off the scoresheet. Although that’s been a rarity in his career at Michigan, it’s happened before.

The Wolverines’ attack and offensive midfield also committed 12 turnovers on the day, six of them coming from attack Thomas Paras. With a slow-down strategy in effect, that sloppy play doomed Michigan.

“Our mistakes today were more about execution mistakes,” said Paul. “We threw some balls away that were wide open.”

It was an explosive offensive day for the Denver offense, and three different Pioneers notched hat tricks. Eric Law, Alex Demopoulos, and Tewaaraton watchlist member Mark Matthews led the team with five points apiece – Law’s coming on four goals and an assist. The Pioneers converted on two of their three extra-man opportunities, and 12 different players notched at least one point.

Michigan sophomore goalkeeper Dylan Westerhold stopped 10 shots while allowing all 17 Pioneer goals on the day. Paul was pleased with the effort, though there are areas that he’ll need to work on going forward.

“He did a great job for us stopping the ball today,” he said. “Obviously we’re investing a lot into him right now. He had a couple turnovers in the clearing game, one of them with no pressure, but he stopped the ball well today.”

Up next, Michigan faces Air Force on short rest. With years of club ball under their belts, however, the Wolverines are used to a short turnaround.

“It’s really important that we put this behind us and start focusing on Air Force,” said Paul. “Everybody’s saying ‘oh, you’re going to Colorado and you’re playing back-to-back.’ But we played national championship tournaments out here three years in a row where we played four games in five days.”

The Wolverines and Falcons take the field at 11 a.m. MST at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in Denver. Air Force fell to Robert Morris in the opening game today by a score of 17-14.

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