IU men's lacrosse trumps Pittsburgh

For IU men's lacrosse midfielder Jason Bowman, his team's 12-8 win over the University of Pittsburgh was indicative of what the team is capable of -- but also of what is holding the squad back.\n"We showed signs of a championship team," Bowman said. "The only thing stopping us is ourselves. When we are playing at our best, it will be very hard for teams to compete with us. We have all the parts, but putting them together is the hard part."\nThe squad seemed to have put all the parts together early and often against the Panthers, storming out to a 7-0 lead after the first quarter against their Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association South rivals. But the remaining three quarters were a different story, as the team seemed to be stopping themselves and all the parts seemed to be drifting apart instead of together.\nThe Hoosiers were outscored 8-5 in the remaining frames, while scoring only two second-half goals, to hold for a 12-8 win.\n"They started out very fast and were excited," said coach Todd Boward. "They knew it (the game) was important. But they got a little complacent and let Pittsburgh fight their way back in." \nCoach Boward implemented a new technique during man-down situations against Pittsburgh, bringing in freshman goalie Joe Meisel and a completely new defensive squad.\n"For man-down we rotated in some different guys, and we had about an 87 percent success rate doing that," said Boward. "I saw on TV the University of Denver brought in a completely different goalie, and it seemed to work pretty well. Joe is right-handed, and Steve (Brown, senior starting goalie) is left-handed, and I think that threw (Pittsburgh) off a bit."\nLike he has all season, junior forward Matt Hof led the scoring attack, netting four goals in the contest. Sophomore James O'Callaghan scored four goals, as well. Bowman, freshman Chris Allen, sophomore Ryan Furman and sophomore midfielder Pete Lindblom added a goal apiece.\nThe weekend of March 24-26 the men's lacrosse team beat West Virginia 7-6 and the University of Buffalo 10-7. Their only loss in the three-game set came at the hands of the University of Miami-Ohio, a match they dropped 12-10.\nWith Saturday's win, the Hoosiers moved to 8-3 on the season and 3-1 in the CCLA South, good for a first place tie with the University of Pittsburgh. The squad has two games remaining in the CCLA South, against Ball State University and Purdue University.\n"After beating Pitt, we need to win these next two games if we want any chance of getting first place and securing a first round bye in the playoffs," Hof said.