What a difference a year can make for a young program.
Then first-year Ryan Mauro in the March 1st, 2014 game against Elmhurst.
The Tigers won with a final score of 14-6.
THE DEPAUW ARCHIVES
Almost a year ago to the day DePauw’s men’s lacrosse team opened their 2014 season with 7-4 loss to Rhodes College, the Tigers avenged that defeat in their 2015 season opener on Saturday.
“It was a close game last year with Rhodes,” sophomore Dan Kantor said. “Everyone was kind of playing with a chip on their shoulders.”
Behind four goals from first-year Kyle Roberts, the Tigers defeated the Lynx in Memphis, Tenn. by a score of 13-8.
“We really came together as a team and played for each other,” Roberts said. “We knew if we played our game and stayed focused we could win. We tried to not think about anything except the game and what we needed to do to win.”
The win comes at a great time for the Tigers. Not only does it start their third season of existence off with a win, but it also calms down the turbulent week that the program had leading up to the trip down south.
Just days before the Tigers made the drive down to Tennessee, the DePauw roster took some major hits with key players deciding to hang up their cleats. After the losses of sophomores Adam Bridges and Sam Caravana earlier this year, the Tigers also didn’t travel with sophomore Robert Lapp, the team’s leading scorer from a year ago.
“We all met as a team and then just decided that no matter what was going on, games were bigger than just the little conflicts within the team,” sophomore Benton Givens said. “The topic didn’t even come up while we were on the trip.”
That didn’t phase this group of Tigers, as despite their inexperience at several positions, the team was able to adjust with several first-years getting significant playing time on Saturday.
“With the loss of some players, we knew we all had to step up our game if we wanted to win,” Roberts said. “Adjustment wise some players switched from midfield to attack. We also did not have many substitutes on offense so we needed to control and posses the ball when we had it on offense.”
After jumping ahead 1-0 on a goal from first-year Andrew Wright, the Tigers allowed three straight goals to the Lynx and trailed by two with 6:50 remaining in the first quarter.
Still with a two goal deficit later on in the quarter, the rookies started a run to get DePauw back into the game. First-years Kyle Roberts, Ben Sherman and Nick Woerner all scored, as the Tigers went on a 4-0 run to take the lead and held a 6-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Lynx scored the first two goals of the second quarter to retake the lead, but the Tigers replied and ensured that Rhodes wouldn’t do it again.
The Tigers outscored the Lynx 5-1 in the second half and held their opponents without a goal in the final quarter. Givens, Roberts and Woerner all scored for the Tigers in the fourth quarter to send the Tigers home with a 13-8 win on opening day.
“We just focused on the little things,” Kantor said. “We focused on why we were all there in the first place: to play lacrosse.”
Roberts led the way for the Tigers offensively with his four goals. Sherman scored twice and added two assists, while Wright also scored twice and chipped in with one assist.
In his first collegiate start, first-year Zach Taylor recorded 10 saves en route to notching his first career win in goal. Classmate Joe Musto came in to replace Taylor later in the game and collected six saves of his own.
The Tigers return to the field on Wednesday night on the road against Illinois Wesleyan University and the team is trying to keep themselves grounded following their opening day win.
Said Roberts: “We are definitely excited and more confident after the win, but we have to stay focused because we still have a lot of games left to play.”