Mar. 22nd, 2004 - No. 23 Georgia Tech Breezes by No. 25 Minnesota

Article by JJ Cavanaugh

Click here to check out the full photo gallery from Georgia Tech vs. Minnesota!

Atlanta, GA - As the Golden Gophers moved on to their second game of their spring break trip in the Peach State, Minnesota quickly discovered their Friday evening experience in Atlanta wouldn't be as pleasant as Wednesday night's affair in Athens. The game boiled down to display of hard hits and great defense. And when the dust had settled, the #23 ranked host Yellow Jackets won by six.

The game started off slowly with precious little action. Georgia Tech had only two measly goals in the opening quarter. The first came from junior attackman Sean Dvoran's (St Mary's HS, Manhasset, NY) stick, unassisted. The second came when attackman Ryan Wilkinson (Lake Braddock HS, Springfield, VA) found speedy Will Oakley (St. Andrew's HS (DE), Wilmington, NC) on a cut to the goal for the tally. 2 – 0 Jackets on a beautiful late winter evening from Atlanta.

After some prompting from the Gophers coaching staff, Minnesota decided that they wanted to make it a game again as the 2nd quarter began. Eugene Zevelev started off the scoring for the Gophers, as he put in a solo goal early in the quarter. John Ericksen followed in fine fashion when he hit the cage off a feed from Justin Young to tie the game.

But Tech caught wind of a potential comeback and ripped off three straight to take back the lead. The first came when midfielder Ryan Hansen scored an unassisted goal by himself. Tech's fourth and fifth goals came quickly off isolation plays by Will Oakley and Craig Kronental, respectively.

Up to this point, Minnesota's defense had been doing poorly. The Gophers had trouble keeping up with the speedy midfielders from Tech and only saved one shot on the goal. However, Eugene Zevelev popped in another goal of his own for Minnesota to cut Tech's lead to two before halftime. The score at halftime read Jackets 5, Gophers 3.

Whatever Georgia Tech Head Coach Ken Lovic said to his team at halftime must have worked. Right off the bat, Tech scored off of an unsettled offense when Sean Dvoran received a feed from Ryan Wilkinson and rips a perfectly placed shot right into the upper right hand corner of the goal.

Tech staggered 3 more unanswered goals throughout the rest of the third quarter. Will Oakley puts another in the back of the net off another feed from Sean Dvoran, only minutes before freshman midfielder Joe Elliott gets a feed from Gary Bridges. To round it off, Will Oakley puts in an unassisted goal of his own. On the other end of the field, the Jackets were shutting out the Gophers. The Minnesota attackmen dropped too many passes, due in part to consistent pressure by the Georgia Tech defenders. Tech had opened a six goal lead after three quarters of play.

Minnesota Coach Chris Larson noted the Jackets' aggressive play on defense. "We had some trouble with Tech's adjacent pressure. It took us a little while to adjust to that. They did a real good job of controlling the ball. I think we need to work harder going through our sets to generate easier looks for our offense…"

The final quarter started out with a good defensive by both teams, but the damage had been done. There would be no comeback by the Gophers on this evening. The teams traded goals and Tech worked the clock. The Jackets' goal came first as Will Oakley topped of his superb evening with yet another solo shot. Minnesota's final goal came when long pole Mohamed Mohamed when coast to coast and bounced one past by Tech defense.

Both teams played good defense and showed great patience on offense. Georgia Tech's dominance on face-offs' helped decided this contest. The Jackets won 11 of 17.

Georgia Tech Coach Ken Lovic noted his team's effort. "Although we started out slowly tonight (on offense), our defense played hard and their effort help us earn a victory tonight. I'm disappointed in our offense. They didn't produce like they should have."
Minnesota concludes their spring break trip in Georgia with a Saturday afternoon game at Emory University. Georgia Tech's next game is in Blacksburg, VA against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Goals by Quarters:
Minn: 0 – 3 – 0 – 1 = 4
GT: 2 – 3 – 4 – 1 = 10

Goals:
Minn: Zevelev (2), Ericksen (1), Mohamed (1)
GT: Dvoran (2), Oakley (5), Hansen (1), Kronenthal (1), Elliott (1)

Assists:
Minn: Young (1)
GT: Wilkinson (3), Bridges (1)

Saves:
Minn: Muchow, 2 saves 10 goals against
GT: Babcock, 9 saves, 4 goals against

EMO:
Minn: 0/2
GT: 2/8

Faceoffs Won:
Minn: 6
GT: 11

JJ Cavanaugh is a Face-Off Middie for the Gwinnett Blackhawks Lacrosse Club (2002 North Georgia Lacrosse League Champions). Next year, JJ will start his college playing career at Georgia Southern University where he hopes to lead the Eagles back into the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference.

Click here to check out the full photo gallery from Georgia Tech vs. Minnesota!