April 20, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - George Carafides stopped 19 of 21 shots on target and Michael Karwoski had three goals and an assist as the Yale men's lacrosse team defeated Air Force 10-2 before 1,569 at Reese Stadium.
The Yale senior goalie saved his best day as a Bulldog for his second-to-last collegiate home game. Carafides, who stopped nine shots in the fourth period, had a career-high with 19 saves while limiting Air Force (3-7) to its lowest goal total of the season.
This was quite a contrast from the combined 28-goal output from Yale's April 16 game at Dartmouth.
Karwoski had his second straight three-goal outing and propelled the Bulldogs out of a defensive struggle.
Woody Johnson finished with nine saves in the Air Force goal as his team was outshot 36-33. Yale (4-8) had the advantage in ground balls (34-29) while the Falcons won nine of 16 faceoffs.
Seventeen turnovers highlighted a defensive-oriented opening frame. Something other than the time changed on the scoreboard with 6:10 left in the first when Yale's Jonathan Koenig, heading toward the net on the left side, took a feed from Michael Karwoski and fired a high shot from 12 feet out that sailed over Johnson's shoulder for the quarter's only tally.
Not much changed in the second with seven more turnovers, but this time nobody found the net.
It looked like Yale would at least take a 2-0 lead into intermission until the Air Force goalie came up with an amazing save. Johnson kicked his leg out to the corner of the net with 1:25 left to stop a point-blank shot from Tyler Casertano.
Carafides, who had given up 17 goals Tuesday night at Dartmouth, made six saves to keep the Falcons off the board in the first half. A few of those stops were short-range, quality chances where he was able to get part of his body on the shot.
Tyler Casertano appeared to give the home team a 2-0 lead 57 seconds into the third quarter when he converted a feed from Patrick Coleman. However, the Bulldog senior was called for an illegal stick and the goal was taken away.
The Elis finally made it 2-0 with 9:42 left in the third on a great effort by Koenig. The senior attackman came in from behind the net and tucked a shot inside the right post that trickled over the goal line.
Casertano, who sat out the three-minute, non-releasable penalty for his equipment violation, came out with fire and eventually got his goal. Circling out from behind the net, Casertano faked a defender, found an opening and then flipped a low shot past Johnson at 8:37 to put the Blue up 3-0.
One of the prettiest goals of the season made it 4-0. Casertano fed Karwoski for an easy one-timer as the Eli attacker was sprinting toward the net and took the lead pass at 4:47. 4-0, 4-7,
The fired up Casertano then stole a pass from a USAF defender near midfield and noticed Johnson was far from the net. That turned into an open-net goal for Casertano and a 5-0 advantage with 4:16 remaining in the third.
Karwoski hit the net after taking a Brendan Gibson helper at 1:39 to close out the third-period scoring.
Kyle Washabaugh got on the board with 9:43 left when he warded off a defender and then, while falling, fired a low shot into the net.
Ridge Flick finally broke up the shutout attempt when he hit the net from 12 feet away with 9:19 left in the game to make it 7-1. The Falcons got a second tally 29 seconds later but a late Karwoski tally dashed any hopes of a comeback.
Colin Ford added a man-down goal with 2:19 left before Nick Tsouris tallied at 1:36 to close out Yale's scoring.
The Elis are home for the last time in 2008 on Saturday at 1 p.m. to host rival Harvard at Reese Stadium.
Recap filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director