Michigan 20, Mercer 7

Ian King winds up and fires, scoring one of his two goals.

Hey, so that ended up being a much happier occasion that the Wolverines’ last time out.

Tempo Free

From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:

This was a blistering pace – mostly on account of all the goals – something that I think Michigan will be completely happy to settle into this year in games where it won’t result in their being wiped all over the floor. In competitive games or those where they have a talent advantage (hey, they might have those now!), look for a much more fun brand of lacrosse out of the Maize and Blue.

“We thought we had some advantages athletically, and we wanted to make this a bit more of an up-and-down game, finally,” said Michigan coach John Paul. “Against some of the teams we aren’t going to play as fast, but we are starting to get more athletic and better, and it is the way we want to play lacrosse, and our program will get there.”

Of course, the efficiency marks tell it all on the final scoreboard.

Notes

This was wire-to-wire dominance (almost – Mercer got the first goal, but after that it was all Michigan). That’s the sort of game Michigan definitely needed, building confidence going forward on both offense and defense. Even if this team’s talent/experience cocktail is still taking baby steps forward, getting an early dominant win (U-M didn’t win until the penultimate game of the 2013 season, or the sixth game of 2012 after a few chances to compete had already passed them by) can help psyche.

The story of this game in my eyes, however, was defense. In the first two years of the program, Michigan has been absolutely incapable of shutting down a team’s top scorer (or top pair). While Zack Ward and Timmy Geran put up four and five points, respectively, they weren’t simply having their way with the Wolverines’ D. The scorer that U-M was most concerned with, Chris Baxa, was held to a single goal on five shots.

That started with Robbie Zonino, who rebounded in a big way after struggling at Penn State. The downgrade in talent had something to do with it (TJ Sanders ain’t walkin’ through that door in Macon), but he was solid between the pipes, letting in only maybe one soft goal – bound to happen here and there – and stealing a couple goals away with great saves. The 6v6 defense was also great, with the close D forcing attackmen behind and the shortsticks not giving any space. Again, that’s the sort of thing that is a lot easier when you’re not facing elite talent.

“He had a better week of practice this week and was feeling pretty confident coming into this,” said Paul. “I hope he gains a lot [of confidence]. We have a better defense in front of him, especially when guys get healthy. We’re getting guys experience right now, and if he can play with confidence and make the first couple saves in a game, Robbie’s going to be fine.”

What Mercer did get was some transition on Michigan’s ride. I hadn’t even noticed, but the Wolverines ran some 10-man (though I did notice that they were riding pretty aggressively overall). The Bears’ third and fourth goals both came from an open attackman on the crease during a clear. I would imagine Michigan won’t ride as aggressively against teams that don’t give them a particular look. Two other Mercer goals came on the EMO (out of six extra-man opportunities), so the 6v6 was strong.

“We were running a ten-man a little bit, and any time you run a ten-man you’re running the risk of that,” Paul said. “It’s also the first time we’ve run that this year. We don’t practice it the way we used to back in the day. If we throw something in this week, there’s going to be a couple little holes in it.”

Offensively, 12 different Wolverines found the back of the net, with Will Biagi, JD Johnson, and Peter Khoury also adding assists without goals of their own. Mike Francia (1G, 3A), Andrew Portnoy (3G, 1A), Ian King (2G, 1A), and Kyle Jackson (2G, 1A) were your stars of the night. Michigan isn’t as reliant on one or two guys as they were last year – Mike Hernandez and Kyle Jackson, in that particular example – and with Will Meter returning to health (he dressed but did not play last night, and would have entered if needed), this should actually be a really good offense in due time. As though a .500 efficiency mark on 40 possessions didn’t make that clear.

Michigan did have some struggles on faceoffs. LSM Chase Brown started the game – but immediately left it – and took a couple more draws in the course of the contest, losing all four he took. That’s not a surprise, but he wasn’t able to muck things up and create 50/50 ground balls, either. He gave up mostly clean wins to the opposing FOGO. Will Biagi had moments of brilliance (a clean win leading to an assist on an Andrew Portnoy goal), but also some struggles. His first three faceoff losses included a clean loss and two violations, and it seemed he was capable of winning draws cleanly or at least winning the clamp, but pretty prone to violating (two penalties over the course of the game) and giving up clean wins. Developing some consistency there is key for him, something John Paul noted.

“We’ll have Brad back pretty soon, and that will help a lot, but Will’s getting some really valuable experience,” Paul said. “Will’s whole thing is consistency. If he can be consistent, he’ll be really good. He’s in a learning phase right now similar to what Brad went through early in the season last year. He struggled when he first came in early in the season and got better and better as the season went on. Will will go through the same thing.”

When Lott comes back, he should be the unquestioned No. 1 on faceoffs. Given the potential that Biagi has, an upgrade there should be a really big deal.

Mercer’s goalies were brutal. Most of Michigan’s scoring came on good looks, but the starter, Mike Nugent, made five saves and gave up nine goals. Backup Ryan Smith proceeded to enter early in the second quarter, and gave up 11 goals while making a single save. Ouch.

Elsewhere

Michigan recap and play-by-play. U-M postgame notes. Mercer version of the boxscore. Bear-oriented recap. Game photos.

Up Next

Yay, it’s a big week on GLS with the in-state Division-1 battle slated for Wednesday at Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac. Pending the outcome of tomorrow’s Detroit-Mercer game (which will teach us a lot about the Titans in what is a transition year for them), I’m a little more convinced Michigan should have a legit shot to win than I was yesterday.

That said, one game does not a season make, especially with all the intangible factors included in a battle between two programs that are choosing to build in very different ways just 40 miles away from each other. Much more preview content on the way for that game.