Dartmouth Surges Back for Impressive 11-9 Win Over Utah

Saturday, March 8

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-1

Utah

1-5

Utah

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Surges Back for Impressive 11-9 Win Over Utah

3/8/2025 5:35:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Postgame Reaction

The Big Green scored three unanswered goals over the final 3:35 to pick up the victory

By: Justin Lafleur

HANOVER, N.H. — Trailing 9-8 with less than five minutes remaining, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team ended the game with three unanswered goals to earn an impressive 11-9 win over Utah on Saturday afternoon. Alex Jessey scored two man-up goals in less than a minute while Colin McGill added an insurance goal to account for the two-goal victory.

With the win, the Big Green improve to 5-1 while the Utes, who have a win this season over top-20 Ohio State, fall to 1-5.

Jessey finished the day with three goals for his first-career hat trick. McGill scored four times to reach exactly 100 career goals.

"Great game," said Dartmouth head coach Sean Kirwan. "Utah is a great team, very unorthodox, very aggressive, flying up and down the field so we knew we had our hands full. Give a lot of credit to our guys for never getting out of the fight, always battling, always trusting each other and staying in it and staying together through all the ups and downs."

In the end, McGill, Jessey, Hopper Zappitello (two goals), Thomas Power (one goal) and Brandon Ventarola (one goal) accounted for the Big Green goals. Zappitello and Power each tallied exactly three points.

Defensively, Thomas Goguen had four groundballs and two caused turnovers while Harrison Keith recorded two groundballs and two caused turnovers.

Utah began the scoring at 9:49 of the first quarter, but the Big Green scored three straight to end it — via a McGill man-up goal and scores from Zappitello and Power.

The Utes responded with a 3-0 run to begin the second quarter, but McGill's second of the day evened the score at four at the half.

Great goal by McGill off the feed from Juhlin evens the score at four at the half!

Gameday Central ➡️ https://t.co/9XalyHUxRB #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/pfwpiDXz25
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) March 8, 2025

The teams went back and forth in the second half, with the score tied at five, six, seven and eight as Zappitello's second, from Emmett Paradine, tied the score at eight less than a minute into the fourth quarter.

The Utes re-opened a 9-8 lead at the 7:52 mark, but the Big Green took advantage of late fourth-quarter penalties, with Jessey netting man-up goals at 3:35 and 2:54, before McGill's fourth of the game and 100th of his career at 1:50 to account for the 11-9 final.

THE LEAD IS OURS!

Gameday Central ➡️ https://t.co/9XalyHUxRB #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/BS1H0sLnly
— Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse (@DartmouthMLax) March 8, 2025

Final shots were 47-43 in favor of the Big Green, with final groundballs tied at 37 apiece. Mason Morel finished with 15 saves for Dartmouth across Utah's Colin Lenskold, who made 14. Spencer Reagan won 12-of-23 faceoffs, including 7-of-8 in the third quarter and 10-of-14 in the second half.

"Our guys are battlers," said Kirwan. "They trusted each other, and that's the biggest thing. With every down that we had, we knew the other side could pick us up. I thought we played great complementary lacrosse and really stuck together through all of it."

The Big Green remain home next Saturday when they host Hobart. Opening faceoff is set for 12 p.m.