March 23, 2008

The Yale men's lacrosse team (1-4, 0-2 Ivy) takes a break from a challenging Ivy League schedule to host the Hartford Hawks (0-7, 0-0 America East) Tuesday night at Reese Stadium at 7. The Bulldogs are coming off an 8-7 OT loss at No. 6 Cornell while the Hawks fell 10-4 at Siena on Saturday.

Series

Yale began playing Hartford in 2005 and has taken all three meetings by a combined 42-13. The Elis won 21-7 in 2005 at New Haven before taking another home game in 2006 by 13-3. Last year at Hartford, the Bulldogs won 18-3.

Last Meeting

Five Bulldogs picked up at least four points as Yale breezed past Hartford, 18-3, at Al-Marzook Field last March. Kyle Washabaugh had four goals while Brendan Gibson finished with team-high six points (3 goals, 3 assists). Captain Chris Kempner had five points (2-3) and Michael Karwoski (3-1) added four. The Blue dominated all aspects of the game. Yale outshot Hartford 45-21, won 21 of 25 faceoffs, and held a 41-19 edge in ground balls. Gregory DuBoff won 13 of the 16 faceoffs. Goalkeeper George Carafides recorded five saves to earn the win before Joe Costa (4 saves) finished off the Hawks.

Bulldogs Come Close at Cornell

George Carafides stopped 13 of 21 shots on goal and nearly helped Yale engineer a major Ivy League and national upset. Ryan Hurley's goal with one second left in overtime gave No. 6 Cornell an 8-7 win at Ithaca on March 22. The Big Red had five of the six shots in OT and survived the scare from the Bulldogs, looking for their first win in the series since 1999. Carafides made two saves in the OT after making five in the second half. At the other end, Jake Myers made 10 saves but didn't have any overtime scares. The Red had the advantage in shots (43-31) but Yale's Gregory DuBoff won 12 of 18 faceoffs and the Blue had the edge in ground balls (23-20). The Elis were also successful on 19 of 21 clears while nearly winning for the first time at Ithaca in 12 years. Tyler Casertano had two goals and two assists while other Yale tallies came from Kyle Washabaugh, Matt Fuchs, Jerome Arnold, Francis Johnson and Davis Lindsey.

Hawks Fall at Siena

Harford, which fell at Siena 10-4 last Saturday, got goals from Steve Roop, Justin Bearse, Michael Cudmore and Steven Bryant. Cudmore also added an assist along with Tom Harris and Brian Tilley. Junior Jon McMahon made 10 saves in goal for the Hawks. Siena dominated the stats as well with a 37-17 edge in ground balls and a 41-24 advantage in shots.

Coaches

Fifth-year Yale head coach Andy Shay (27-31 at Yale) is 3-0 against Hartford. Peter Lawrence is in his third year at Hartford and is 0-2 against the Elis.