The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsWednesday
Wednesday, October 17, 2018 — 3B

Michigan looking to right the ship defensively

Go back one year, and much 
is the same now for the No. 
11 Michigan hockey team — 
especially on defense.
Last season, the Wolverines 
took time to adjust to Michigan 
coach Mel Pearson’s system, 
only reaching peak defensive 
form in a post-New Year’s day 
stretch that saw them allow 
2.72 goals per game. Before that 
though, the Wolverines were 
plagued by lackadaisical play 
off the puck and turnovers deep 
in either zone.
Through one game against 
Vermont and two exhibition 
games, this season’s initial 
impressions are much of the 
same — Michigan has given up 
at least four goals in each game, 
and has allowed scores on five 
of 10 opposing power plays. Be 
it the blue line playing too far 
up on offense or committing 
too many turnovers, opposing 
teams have been able to break 
away and score, seemingly just 
like last year.
“Our play without the puck 
(needs to improve),” Pearson 
said. “Not as much in zone 
but our transition game when 
we’re getting back into our 
zone, who we’re picking up 
our goaltending, we have to get 
better there.
“... Definitely a defensive 
game. I think if you look at all 
the aspects you can’t expect 
to give up as many goals as we 
have in these games and expect 
to win. So one area that we’re 
going to spend a lot of time this 
week is working on our play 
without the puck.”
Unlike last year, though, 
Michigan 
can’t 
rely 
on 
unfamiliarity as much of an 
excuse. Whether it’s the blue-
line pairings of sophomore 
Quinn 
Hughes 
and 
senior 
Joseph Cecconi, or senior Nick 
Boka and junior Griffin Luce, 
the Wolverines return not only 
experience but also resilience 

from last year’s defense. 
That’s not to say, though, that 
the start of this season is all 
the back line’s fault. In college 
hockey, the unexpected is the 
expected, 
and 
that’s especially 
true 
when 
many 
teams 
haven’t formally 
stepped on the 
ice for a game 
in six or seven 
months. Having 
to 
integrate 
a 
completely 
new front line 
rotation 
is 
no 
simple 
task, 
either. Neither is manufacturing 
teamwide chemistry.
“We’re still fluid,” Pearson 
said. “We’re still trying to 
work on it, get some chemistry 
together. You can see it when 
(sophomore 
forward 
Jack) 

Becker and the two Pastujovs are 
together, they’re really good. (I 
think sophomore forward Josh 
Norris) and (junior forward 
Will) Lockwood have some 
chemistry. 
Other than that, 
we’ve 
gotta 
find some more 
chemistry, and 
you can’t force 
that, that’s the 
hard part. It’s 
gotta occur ... 
we 
have 
too 
many 
good 
players.”
Just like last 
year, Michigan 
has a chance to turn around its 
defense, but can learn from last 
year and fix things up a little 
earlier. Almost all the pieces 
are there. Junior goalkeeper 
Hayden Lavigne hasn’t started 
strongly, but he too has a 

second chance at redemption. 
Even 
freshman 
goalkeeper 
Strauss Mann showed flashes 
by allowing just one goal in his 
first 40 minutes of action on the 
ice.
“You know, Hayden’s a good 
goaltender, he’s just fighting it 
a little bit right now, Pearson 
said.“Maybe 
the 
exhibition 
game he didn’t prepare for or 
whatnot, but he’ll bounce back. 
And you have to. We got off 
to a slow start last year, and it 
(ended) really good,”
Time 
will 
tell 
if 
the 
Wolverines can duplicate the 
same successful run that they 
conjured up last year. While 
the first three games on Yost’s 
ice have been a mixed bag, to 
say the least, Michigan may 
well find a groove. Whether it’s 
enough or not is all in the hands 
of the men on the defensive end 
of the ice.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior defenseman Nick Boka is part of an experienced defensive group returning this season for the Wolverines.

RIAN RATNAVALE
Daily Sports Writer

“We’re still trying 

to work on it, get 

some chemistry 

together.”

Handball sparks ‘M’ 
for big win over Titans

Even before kickoff, the 
Michigan men’s soccer team 
looked bigger and faster than 
Detroit Mercy. The physical 
supremacy carried over into the 
match, where the Wolverines 
controlled the Titans for much 
of the 90 minutes, winning, 
5-0.
With the game tied at zero, 
Michigan (9-2-1 overall, 3-1-1 
Big Ten) was firmly in control, 
as it dominated possession with 
precision passing, while Detroit 
Mercy 
(1-11-2 
overall, 
0-5-1 
Horizon) 
had 
trouble linking 
up more than 
three passes at 
a time. Then the 
Wolverines took 
the lead in the 
38th minute, as 
senior defender 
Marcello Borges 
drew a penalty 
after his cross into the box was 
blocked by a Titan defender’s 
arm.
To break the tie, sophomore 
midfielder Marc Ybarra lined 
up the ensuing penalty, as light 
rain came down on the players. 
With calm nerves, Ybarra sank 
the penalty kick into the right 
corner. The Titan keeper dove 
the wrong way and never had a 
chance at the save.
Up 1-0, the Wolverines never 
looked back, as they sank four 
more goals in the remaining 50 
minutes.
“I think we got ourselves 
in good advanced positions 
and then we got in advanced 
positions in the wide areas as 
well,” said Michigan coach 
Chaka Daley. “I think the 
service caused them problems 
and we didn’t go to it enough 
and we finally got to go to it late 
in the half and when we did: 

handball, PK.”
Michigan 
played 
a 
very 
physical game after the penalty, 
as the Titans began to man-
mark after that. That opened 
up holes in the Detroit Mercy 
defense as the Wolverines’ 
passing pulled the Titans out of 
position and opened holes for 
Michigan to attack and advance 
its postion. 
The second goal quickly 
followed the first after a cross 
into the box fell to freshman 
forward 
Sosa 
Emovon. 
He 
slotted a pass to sophmore 
forward 
Umar 
Farouk Osman, 
who 
was 
waiting 
right 
outside 
the 
five-yard 
box 
in between two 
Detroit 
Mercy 
defenders. 
Osman rocketed 
the 
ball 
into 
the left corner 
giving 
the 
keeper no time to react.
The second half brought 
three more goals, and two 
more goalies for the Titans. 
After a breakaway goal by 
senior forward Noah Kleedtke 
and a corner kick headed in 
by 
sophomore 
defensemen 
Jackson Ragen, junior forward 
Jack Hallahan scored to go 
along with his two assists, 
calmly 
dribbling 
around 
Detroit Mercy‘s third goalie of 
the night and chipping the ball 
into the net.
With five games remaining 
before the Big Ten Tournament, 
it is key for the Wolverines to 
get these confidence-boosting 
wins.
“We’re 
only 
guaranteed 
ten hours, I told those guys 
today,” Daley said. “We’re only 
guaranteed ten hours of soccer, 
so let‘s make the most of it and 
I think they did tonight.” 

MEN’S SOCCER

RON CHEN 
For the Daily 

“We’re only 
guaranteed ten 
hours, I told 
those guys...”

Wolverines fall to Irish

Seconds before kickoff, senior 
Robbie Mertz made the sign of 
the cross and appeared to lift his 
hands in prayer. Given how the 
first half of the Michigan men’s 
soccer team’s matchup against 
Notre Dame went, there may 
very well have been something 
supernatural going on. It seems 
that the laws of physics were 
reversed; players spent more 
time on the ground than the ball, 
which was constantly airborne 
and passed backward instead of 
forward.
In the end, the Wolverines 
fell to the Fighting Irish (8-4-1) 
Tuesday night, almost a week 
after their 5-0 shutout win against 
Detroit Mercy increased their 
record to 9-3-1 overall and 3-1-1 in 
the Big Ten.
The game seemed to progress 
in slow motion, the first minutes 
spent in a punting match between 
the goalies, each launching the 
ball down the field right to the 
other. The game was also routinely 
interrupted by an abundance of 
fouls on both sides, each seemingly 
in response to the other team’s 
transgression. 
The 
back 
and 
forth quickly resulted in senior 
midfielder and captain Ivo Cerda’s 
early exit from the game after he 
suffered an injury. Soon after their 
captain came out, the Wolverines 
ceded a goal to Notre Dame’s 
Thomas Ueland off a rebound from 
Michigan sophomore defenseman 
Jackson Ragen.
Evidently with a chip on his 
shoulder, Ragen drew a yellow 
card late in the first half for 
slide tackling Notre Dame’s Ian 
Aschieris. Though the fouls kept 
raining down, the Wolverines 
seemed to wake up from their 
trance after falling behind, getting 
down to business.
“They passed well, they played 
well; we caused them a whole host 
of problems,” Michigan coach 
Chaka Daley said, and despite the 
loss, “... We outplayed Notre Dame 
from start to finish.”
Daley 
expressed 
disappointment in the referees, 
who had their whistles blowing all 
game with a combined total of 25 

fouls, 14 on Notre Dame and 11 on 
Michigan.
“Consistency is important in 
everything you do, because that’s 
what the players will expect, 
and that’s what the coaches will 
expect,” Daley said. “If the game 
is inconsistent, it disrupts your 
rhythm and flow; you don’t what’s 
a foul and what isn’t a foul.”
The Fighting Irish nearly scored 
a second time in the first half on a 
seemingly-undefended goal, but 
a last-minute charge call spared 
the 
Wolverines. 
That 
divine 
intervention not going unnoticed, 
Jack Hallahan capitalized in the 
form of an early second-half, 
right-foot goal in the bottom right 
corner of the net, tying the game 
and highlighting why he is ranked 
among the program’s top scorers 
historically.
Not to be outdone, Notre 
Dame’s Sean MacLeod answered 
Hallahan’s goal with one of his 
own, scoring off a penalty kick 
at 67:41 in the game. With three 
minutes left in the game, the 
Fighting Irish appeared to be 
playing a game of cat-and-mouse, 
taking their time to run down 
the clock and secure the victory. 
Michigan apparently didn’t know 
who was the cat and who was the 
mouse, as the claws came out and 
heated exchanges ensued.
As the regular season draws 
to a close, and with the Big Ten 
Tournament 
on 
the 
horizon, 
pressure is mounting going into 
Friday’s game against Wisconsin, 
which is vying to challenge the 
Wolverines’ No. 3 position in the 
conference.
The 
Badgers 
boast 
road 
wins 
against 
Maryland 
and 
Michigan State, both of which the 
Wolverines have to play before 
they end their regular season. 
Michigan needs to keep its footing, 
given that the Spartans, whom the 
Wolverines play next Tuesday, 
sits comfortably in second place. 
A bitter and close, 1-0 loss to No. 1 
Indiana on October 7 emphasized 
the stakes going into the the Big 
Ten Tournament.
“I think after (Tuesday’s loss) 
our guys will be hungry and 
motivated to get this out of our 
system,” Daley said. “The guys had 
a good day at the office.”

Beilein settling for freshmen in final rotation

At 
the 
Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 
team’s 
first 
media 
availability of the season, John 
Beilein told reporters that his team 
needed “two or three” freshmen 
to work their way into a rotation 
depleted by graduation and NBA 
departures. 
Forwards 
Ignas 
Brazdeikis and Brandon Johns 
came in as highly-touted four-
star recruits, widely expected 
to contribute immediately, but 
Beilein would only commit to 
Brazdeikis.
“We’ve only got seven guys 
returning, we’re gonna have a nine 
or ten man rotation,” Beilein said 
at the time. “Two or three of those 
guys gotta find their way into that 
lineup.”
Three weeks later, he has 
settled on guard David DeJulius 
to join Brazdeikis and Johns in the 
rotation.
The reasons they — and not 
guard Adrien Nunez or center 
Colin Castleton — have earned 
Beilein’s trust are strength and 

defense, which he labels as the two 
factors that keep most freshmen 
off the court.
Through 
three 
weeks 
of 
practice, 
defense 
has 
been 
the biggest bright spot for the 
Wolverines. It’s why their practices 
are absent of players running stairs 
at the top of the Crisler Center or 
doing extra sprints afterwards.
In contrast to early last season, 
when 
then-freshman 
guard 
Jordan Poole’s defensive struggles 
kept him off the floor, this year’s 
freshmen have been at the center 
of Michigan’s defensive emphasis.
“They have a will to get better 
… it comes little bit by little bit 
with every kid,” Beilein said. 
“And some positions are harder. 
Colin Castleton’s man is gonna set 
screens, he doesn’t have to worry 
about zoning up as much. David’s 
got everything, Brandon’s trying to 
play two positions (power forward 
and center).”
“… Here’s the one thing they 
know more than anything else: If 
you don’t play defense, you’re not 
gonna play.”
Brazdeikis, 
DeJulius, 
and 

Johns’ physical readiness has also 
separated them from Nunez and 
Castleton.
Castleton has added 16 pounds 
since reporting to Ann Arbor at 
210 but still hasn’t fully grown 
into his 6-foot-10 body. In contrast, 
the Wolverines’ strength staff has 
already forced Brazdeikis to stop 
bench pressing because he’s too 
muscular.
“Their bodies are more ready 
than the other two right now,” 
Beilein said. “… Iggy is older than 
(sophomore) Jordan Poole so his 
body is ready. Brandon’s body is — 
he’s got a great body but he’s got to 
get stronger within that body. And 
then David is just like a bulldog, 
he’s got a great trunk to him, he’s 
got a great core to him. So those 
guys are gonna be ready.”
After losing production from 
last season at all five spots on 
the floor, Johns and Brazdeikis’ 
versatility adds to their value off 
the bench.
Beilein discussed Brazdeikis’ 
ability to play at the ‘2’ through ‘4’ 
last month, while he expects Johns 
to get time at power forward and 

center behind sophomore Isaiah 
Livers and junior Jon Teske, 
respectively.
“Brandon’s gonna have to learn 
the ‘4’ and ‘5,’ alright,” Beilein said. 
“Breaking news, he’s gonna have 
to learn those two positions.
“… For Brandon to sit there and 
watch Isaiah and Iggy play at the 
‘4’ wouldn’t make sense.”
That seemingly leaves Nunez 
and Castleton out of Beilein’s plans 
early in the season. But when 
asked about the possibility of 
either redshirting, Beilein would 
only say that he had informed all 
freshmen that they will lose their 
redshirt eligibility as soon as they 
enter a game.
That 
could 
be 
important 
information 
for 
Nunez 
and 
Castleton. For the other three, it 
will likely become irrelevant on 
opening night.
“They’re really hard working, 
and they’re really good kids,” 
Beilein said. “They are growing 
every day, and some days there are 
giant leaps and some days there 
are steps backwards. But I love 
coaching them.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

EVAN AARON/Daily
Freshman forward Brandon Johns will have to learn the power forward and center positions for Michigan this season, according to coach John Beilein.

SOPHIA JASKOSKI
For the Daily

