Strong Start and Finish Lead Dartmouth Past Holy Cross, 14-8

Saturday, February 24

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-1

Holy Cross

2-2

Holy Cross

Dartmouth

Photo by: Cayla Fernandes

Strong Start and Finish Lead Dartmouth Past Holy Cross, 14-8

2/24/2024 10:01:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The win marks the first of Sean Kirwan’s career as Big Green head coach

By: Justin Lafleur

HANOVER, N.H. — Less than seven minutes into Saturday's home opener, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 5-0 lead and wouldn't look back, defeating Holy Cross, 14-8. Despite the Crusaders making a run to as close as three in the fourth quarter, the Big Green scored the game's final three goals for the comfortable victory. The win marked the first of Sean Kirwan's career as collegiate head coach.

With the victory, Dartmouth improves to 1-1 while Holy Cross falls to 2-2.

"It feels great," said Kirwan. "You can always be happy with a win. The way our guys competed, more importantly, the way we were able to adjust and correct the mistakes that we made in our opener last week, I'm really proud of the effort, really proud of our guys to start fast and then finish strong as well."

This Saturday was the reverse of the season opener when the Big Green trailed Bucknell 5-0 early and couldn't come all the way back.

Some stellar performances were highlighted by sophomore Hopper Zappitello. After entering the game with three career points, he posted a career-high eight in his first action of the season. Zappitello scored two goals and dished six assists, the most assists by a Big Green player since Ben Martin dished seven on Apr. 11, 2017 against UMass Lowell.

Three of junior Colin McGill's five goals were assisted by Zappitello. Saturday marked the third-career game McGill has scored five or more goals. Three other Big Green players scored twice — senior Nate Davis, junior Quinn Moore and sophomore Emmett Paradine.

Defensively, junior Griffin O'Neil had three groundballs and two caused turnovers while first-year Will Cohen recorded two groundballs and two caused turnovers. Fellow rookie Ryan Williamson saw his first-collegiate action in goal, starting and making 15 saves in a sensational performance. At a time when Holy Cross was mounting a charge, Williamson stopped six-of-eight shots sent his way in the third quarter to keep the Big Green ahead 11-5 heading to the fourth.

Fifth-year Mitchell Myers won 12-of-18 faceoffs with five groundballs.

"For Ryan to step up as a first-year and make the saves that he did was tremendous, but it also was a great defensive effort to make sure he was seeing the shots that he needed," said Kirwan. "Colin with five goals and Hopper with six assists, that's just great unselfish ball movement from our offense, a lot of guys doing the dirty work of drawing those slides, getting it to them and those two finishing the job. Again, it's just a product of our guys buying into doing their part and having fun doing it."

Five different goal scorers contributed to Dartmouth's early 5-0 lead, as McGill scored from senior Peter Lapina at the 8:12 mark, the Big Green's second goal in 44 seconds, for the five-goal margin.

Big Green lead Holy Cross 5-0 after one quarter! Ryan Williamson with four saves in goal in his first collegiate action.

Watch on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/N18AXtIRTM #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/AV0bCJRzCL
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) February 24, 2024

After nearly 15 minutes with neither team scoring, Holy Cross got on the board at 8:48 of the second, but the Big Green answered just 50 seconds later, then only 47 seconds after that. First, Davis assisted McGill, then Davis put one home to give Dartmouth a 7-1 lead.

Diving assist from Lapina, goal from Davis puts the Big Green up 7-1!

Watch on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/N18AXtIRTM #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/4zXhz3DnzI
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) February 24, 2024

The teams traded goals through the rest of the second and into the third. Two straight Crusader tallies pulled Holy Cross within 9-5 late in the third, but Zappitello found McGill twice in less than 90 seconds to give the Big Green an 11-5 lead heading to the fourth.

Holy Cross netted the first three goals of the fourth, but Zappitello had a hand in each of the game's final three tallies, with a goal and two assists, to account for the 14-8 final. One was a highlight-reel behind-the-back marker at the 3:59 mark, before his sixth assist and McGill's fifth goal rounded out the 14-8 final.

Hopper Zappitello, are you kidding?! Eight points this afternoon, including this behind-the-back beauty 😎#SCTop10 | @ESPNAssignDesk pic.twitter.com/6h1YoiiSli
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) February 24, 2024

For the game, the Big Green held a 38-34 edge in shots, with Holy Cross leading in groundballs, 38-37. The Crusaders finished with 19 turnovers to Dartmouth's 17. Holy Cross was 2-of-6 on the extra man while the Big Green didn't have a man-up opportunity. Dartmouth was 23-of-25 on clears to the Crusaders' 18-of-22.

"Coach said it best, it's all about us at the end of the day," said Zappitello. "I've got to work with five other guys on offense and you look at the defense and the goalie, it was definitely the whole team coming together. After struggling last week, we really wanted to get this one, so now it's onto the next."

Dartmouth returns to action on Monday in a neutral site matchup against Lehigh at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m.

"For us, it's worrying about us, correcting the mistakes that we made today — which there certainly were a couple — and then making sure in a quick turnaround, not overthinking it as coaches and just letting our guys be players and play Dartmouth lacrosse," said Kirwan.