Hanover
The need for such construction was painfully evident yet again Saturday, when No. 1 Yale strolled out of Scully-Fahey Field with a 15-5 victory. Yes, the hosts competed more intensely and more successfully than they did a week ago in a lopsided loss to Cornell, but they weren’t able to give the Bulldogs much of a battle past halftime, at which the visitors led, 5-2.
“Yale basically said enough’s enough when they came out in the third quarter,” said Callahan, whose team fell to 1-9 overall and 0-3 in Ivy League play. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team score nine goals in a quarter. They came right at us and put it out of reach.”
Dartmouth played harder, particularly during the first quarter, which ended in a 1-1 tie. By game’s end, however, the statistics were again painful for the Big Green to review. Yale held a 48-27 shot advantage, forced Dartmouth’s three goaltenders to combine for 18 saves and won 17 of 23 faceoffs.
The Big Green successfully cleared 11 of 20 times, while the Bulldogs were 18-of-19. Yale (10-0, 3-0) scored on four of its five man-up opportunities, while Dartmouth was 1-of-7.
“We need to win some (recruiting) battles for kids who will change our overall skill level,” Harry Sheehy, Dartmouth’s sixth-year athletic director, said. “The first year after a coaching change is about excitement and the second year is when the players realize how much work is left to be done.”
Sitting high in the bleachers, 1979 Dartmouth graduate Nigel Key watched his sons, current Big Green players Evan and Dylan, warm up before the game. Nigel Key was a football and lacrosse standout as a collegian and said he’s hearing good things from his boys.
“There’s a little bit of a hangover from the last years under the old coach, but my kids think (Callahan) has the right formula,” the father said. “They could have gone anywhere, but they wanted to make a difference. It’s a little bit frustrating though, because win or lose, you work just as hard during the week.”
Much of Callahan’s effort has been spent on the recruiting trail, where he said he’s made roster slot offers, contingent upon admissions acceptance, to 35 players since he arrived. All but one have accepted, he said, but the 31-year-old won’t have a full roster of his own choosing until his sixth season because of how early the sport’s prospects make commitments to college programs.
“Dartmouth is a place where a lot of people want to go to school, and there are only 70 Ivy League (men’s lacrosse admissions slots) available each year, so it’s very coveted,” Callahan said. “We have to find guys with grades and with the mentality we’re looking for, who want a challenge and can compete for playing time from the minute they step on campus.”
Players like sophomore midfielder Jack Korzelius, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound New Yorker who scored twice Saturday and who has 11 goals and four assists this spring. Korzelius had 21 goals and three assists last season, but he’s now a known quantity and Callahan said he’s been playing hurt.
“Your freshman year, a lot of people don’t know what your moves are,” the coach said. “Sophomore year, he’s been seeing a lot of double teams and the other team’s best defender. Sometimes they even bump up a (long-pole) defender on him.”
This season’s best freshman might wind up being walk-on goaltender Joe Balaban, who made his sixth appearance and third start against Yale. Hailing from Chestertown, Md., a town of roughly 5,000 across the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore, Balaban made 11 saves, several of them outstanding, during the first half but was pulled after the Bulldogs scored the second half’s first seven goals in fewer than 10 minutes, the last three all on man-up situations.
“Joe’s a cool customer but it doesn’t matter what you’re doing when you’re getting shelled like that,” Callahan said. “We picked him up late after he was hurt during one of his main recruiting summers and fell through the cracks.”
Hindering Dartmouth has been the absence of injured, senior midfielders Taylor Topousis and Jack Connolly. Junior Krieg Greco, the top remaining faceoff man after standout Phil Hession graduated last spring, left the program shortly before the start of the current campaign. Dartmouth has won just 40 percent of its draws this season.
“The guy we’re using now has been doing it for four weeks,” Callahan said of a job so crucial and specialized that many Division I programs award scholarships to players who do little else. “We’re facing more skilled guys now that we’re getting into league play and we’ve been a step slow to loose balls.”
Losing breeds irritability and unrest. Sheehy said on WTSL radio last week that Callahan is going to “have to break a few eggs to make an omelette” while he fixes the program, and the coach acknowledged the job hasn’t come without conflict.
“Some of the older guys, it might not be what they signed up for,” he said. “You care for them and love them like they’re your own kids but you also draw some lines in the sand and say that if you step over them then here’s what’s going to happen.
“There were a lot of eggs that had to be cracked and there was a lot of push-back, but we have to make sure we’re all moving forward in the same direction.”
Notes: Dartmouth’s Wiley Osborne also scored twice and was rewarded with a length of industrial-sized chain, which he wore around his neck after the game. Callahan said the prop is “something physical to show how we want everyone linked together with one mind and one heartbeat. The guy who worked hardest in practice and in the game one week will wear it and lead us out the next.” … Michael Keasey scored four goals for Yale.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.