Completed Event: Men's Lacrosse at #4 Harvard on March 20, 2026 , Loss , 14, to, 17
Final
Men's Lacrosse
at #4 Harvard
14
17
This Week in Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse
3/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
HANOVER, N.H. ? Things are never as simple as they look.
In the first game back from its southern trip, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team dropped its Ivy League opener at Brown, 9-5.
Three days later the Big Green (4-3 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) broke the 20-goal threshold for the first time in coach Bill Wilson's five years at the helm in a 21-12 shellacking of Holy Cross.
So Wilson was pretty down in the dumps about the loss to Brown (4-2 overall,1-0 Ivy) and sky high after the win over the Crusaders, right?
To steal a phrase from that popular movie of a year ago, not so much.
Despite the final score down in Providence, the Big Green mentor came out of the game feeling pretty good about his team. And despite the offensive pyrotechnics against Holy Cross (3-5), Wilson's postgame comments after the big win were somewhat guarded. Yup, things are never as simple as they look.
Against Brown five different players scored for Dartmouth and two Big Green goalies combined for 14 saves in a game that was much closer than the four-goal separation at the horn would suggest.
“The last two goals they scored were open net goals when we were trying to get the ball back,” Wilson explained. “So it was actually 7-5.
“We had a 5-on-4 that turned into a 4-on-3 really quick, and if we throw one more pass across the crease we have a wide-open shot at net with no goalie. We take the shot instead and we step in the crease. ... If we score that goal it's 7-6 with a minute and a half, and we are winning faceoffs. We felt good with Chad Gaudet's faceoff.”
That's why seeing his team take Brown to the wall on the road left Wilson relatively upbeat despite the “L” in the loss column.
“We felt like even though we didn't execute well on defense early in the game, we did later as the game progressed, and that we did play well on offense,” the coach said. “We did execute between the lines. We did a pretty good job.
“It was our best game to date (although) we didn't win. We felt like if we'd buried our shots we would have won by a few.”
Now flash forward three days to the visit by Holy Cross for a game that was forfeited to weather on Feb. 26.
Ari Sussman and Jon Livadas had four goals apiece and Brian Koch, Phil Killian, Josh Gillam, Chris Root and Jimmy Mullen scored two each as Dartmouth hit the 20 mark for the first time since a 20-7 win over Quinnipiac on March 4, 2003. Livadas, Koch and Sussman each chipped in two assists.
It was a solid offensive performance, but one that came with an asterisk.
“What you saw today were a lot of transition goals,” Wilson explained. “Against Brown what you saw is we dodged within our offense. We created high-opportunity shots. All 10-yard-and-in shots. (Brown's) Jordan Burke is one of the best goalies in the country. Arguably he's the best goalie right now. Who knows? We won't know that until later, but he played a tremendous game. He had 11 saves on 22 shots in the first half and the game was 5-2 Brown. And he played great in the second half as well. I think that was the difference maker in the game.
“(But) we created and generated more high-quality shots than (Brown) did. Their shots fell and our shots didn't. In the end, ground balls were equal. We won the faceoff battle. We cleared the ball better than they did ... .”
While the goal production was up a few days later against Holy Cross, Wilson had a firm hand on the caution flag.
“We scored some 6-on-6 but I think the majority were in transition,” he said. “We'd like to see our guys score some more goals assisted.”
Although Holy Cross padded its total with two goals in the final 61 seconds, the dozen they scored marked a season high for the Crusaders, who averaged 5.9 goals coming in and had scored just 13 total goals in their last three games, albeit against good competition.
“You saw us give up a bunch of goals and a lot of those goals were extra-man goals so I'm a little concerned about our discipline as a team,” said Wilson. “But the guys played hard and I appreciate that.
“I love it when the guys come out and play hard. That's something that was a concern early in the season, but as the season has progressed everyone is playing hard on game day. We're fighting for ground balls and we are proud of them for that.” Naming Names Wilson had words of praise for a number of his players after the Big Green won for the second time in its last three games and played well for the third game in a row. Said Wilson:
? “Chad Gaudet has established himself as a faceoff guy. He's a physical player. He can keep the ball alive on the ground and get it to a teammate or pick it up himself.”
? “Robby Pride stepped up playing defensive midfield for us. He's starting to feel a little more comfortable on the field at the defensive midfield position.”
? “Ari Sussman is just starting right now to feel comfortable dodging from different areas of the field. Last year you saw him dodge from the left wing a lot. ... Now he's getting some different looks and having more responsibility and I think he's feeling a little more comfortable with his role.”
? “Jon Livadas was bumped back and he's still feeling a little more comfortable in his role.” This Week in Dartmouth Lacrosse The Big Green faces a stern test when it takes on Duke Saturday afternoon at 4 on Long Island. Dartmouth dropped a 17-11 decision to the Blue Devils (8-1 entering the week) a year ago in the season-opener in Durham, N.C.
“This week in practice we will have to focus on playing a disciplined style between the lines,” explained Wilson. “We ran, ran, ran great (against Holy Cross) but if you try to run with Duke you are not going to score 21 goals. ...
“If we want to be successful against Duke it needs to be a single-digit game. Georgetown proved it could be done last week (in an 11-7 win for the Hoyas) and we're going to focus right now on valuing possession of the ball and not taking an opportunity that is not a good one.”
The Duke game marks the beginning of the second half of the season for Dartmouth. While he's pleased to have a winning record, none of the Big Green's victories would be considered an upset, so Wilson is still searching for the first of those.
“This would be a tremendous week to do it,” he said with a big grin. “Anytime you beat a top-5 team or a top-10 team it gives you an opportunity (for the) NCAA Tournament. “So far we've won the games we're supposed to win. Maybe Fairfield was a tossup game and Brown a tossup game. But we're definitely getting better and we are proud of the guys for that. They are plugging away. They really are.”
Players Mentioned
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