Men's Lacrosse Snaps Skid with Win Over Holy Cross

Tuesday, March 24

Worcester, Mass.

6:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Holy Cross

Men's Lacrosse Snaps Skid with Win Over Holy Cross

3/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

Box Score

WORCESTER, Mass. - Senior captain Tim Daniels (Duxbury, Mass.) recorded a game-high five points to lead the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team to a 10-9 win over Holy Cross on Tuesday evening to snap the Big Green's five-game losing streak.

Dartmouth (2-5) earned its first win since opening the season with a win at Hartford. Daniels netted three goals and added two assists, while juniors Ari Sussman (New Haven, Conn.) and Christopher Root (Houston, Texas) posted a pair of goals apiece. Sussman also added an assist and Root was credited with the game-winner. Freshman Fergus Campbell (New Canaan, Conn.) earned his first collegiate victory in his second career start. He made 13 stops in the crease for the Big Green.

Holy Cross (1-7) was led by Chris Smirti and Colin Flood as each tallied three goals, while Conor McKenna registered three points with a goal and two assists. Jimmy Harrison saved 12 Dartmouth shots in the defeat between the pipes.

The Big Green jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Sussman and junior Towny Swiggett (Huntington, N.Y.) with Daniels getting credit for the assist on Swiggett's tally coming at the 13:49 mark of the opening quarter. Flood got Holy Cross on the board with 10:43 left, but Dartmouth went back up by two goals a minute later on Sussman's second of the contest to make it 3-1 in favor of the Big Green. The Crusaders knotted the score at 3-3 on goals by Kenny Minor and Flood to close out the quarter.

Holy Cross kept the pressure on the Big Green as the Crusaders earned their first lead of the game at the 11:37 mark of the second frame. Smirti tallied the first of his three on the evening to give Holy Cross a 4-3 lead.

Dartmouth answered with three-consecutive goals to go back on top by the score of 6-4. Senior captain Brian Koch (Rye, N.Y.) posted his lone goal of the game, while sophomore Rhett Miller (Dallas, Texas) connected on his second goal of the season and first of the year coming in a man-up situation. Miller's goal was the only man-up goal for either team in the contest. Daniels added the final goal of the half for the Big Green and before the horn, the Crusaders got one back as Flood netted his second of the game to cut the Dartmouth lead to 6-5 at the half.

Smirti started the second half for the Crusaders by netting a pair of goals to put Holy Cross back on top at 7-6 with 8:51 remaining in the third quarter. Root answered with his first of the night at the 3:30 mark to tie the score and Daniels gave the Big Green its fifth lead of the game at 8-7 with nine seconds left in the frame.

The back-and-forth battle continued into the final quarter as Minor and McKenna tallied back-to-back scores to take the lead back for the Crusaders at 9-8 with 8:02 remaining in the game.

With 4:47 left, Daniels found the net with his third score of the game to tie the score at 9-9 with the assist going to Sussman. Following the game-tying tally, it only took the Big Green 15 seconds to regain the lead for the final time as Root recorded his second of the game and the game-winner coming with 4:34 remaining.

Down the stretch, Dartmouth didn't make any costly mistakes and Campbell was able to push aside one shot in the final four-plus minutes to earn the 10-9 victory for the Big Green.

Dartmouth outshot Holy Cross by a close 34-31 margin, while the Big Green scored one goal in four opportunities with the extra man and the Crusaders failed on just two chances on the man advantage. Dartmouth also dominated the face-offs for the first time this season, earning 18 wins on 23 chances.

The Big Green will be back in action this coming Saturday at 12 p.m. as Dartmouth travels to Stony Brook, N.Y., to face 10th-ranked Duke in a neutral site game from Long Island.