The men’s lacrosse team snapped its four-game losing streak with a crushing 16-5 rout of Albany (1-6) yesterday at the Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium.

The Bulldogs (4-5, 1-3), who dominated the Danes from the initial faceoff, took the lead one minute into the contest and never relinquished it.

“We played well,” head coach Mike Waldvogel said. “Albany’s a little down now, but we executed both offensively and defensively the way we wanted to.”

Mike Scaglione ’03 and Brian Hunt ’02 led the Yale attack and combined for half of Yale’s goals. Scaglione hit the back of the net five times, four of which were feeds from Hunt. In the second quarter, the duo ran the back-door cut to perfection, allowing Scaglione to score from the same position three times in four minutes.

“The team offense is clicking,” Scaglione said. “Hunt dodges a lot and draws double teams, and in the past two years of playing with him, I’ve learned how to work off-ball. We [Floyd, Hunt and Scaglione] all know where each other is going to be.”

Hunt, who is currently second in the nation in points per game with 5.00, added three goals along with his four assists and succeeded in exhausting the Dane defense.

Albany goalkeeper Mike Amone made 17 saves in the game, but was overwhelmed by the barrage of Yale shots. The Bulldogs outshot the Danes 46-23, and the Yale defense did not allow a single shot in the first quarter.

Throughout the season, the Elis have often fallen behind early and struggled to comeback.

“Today, we started out the right way,” Waldvogel said.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter and pulled ahead for an 8-1 lead at halftime. After the break, the team varied its line-ups, and seven players combined for the remaining eight goals.

The Elis were especially successful in man-up situations, scoring in four of their six opportunities. Albany failed to capitalize on its eight extra-man situations and even conceded a goal to the Elis while holding the man-advantage.

Every Eli goaltender played against the Danes, including Roy Skeen ’04, who made his first collegiate appearance, and recorded five saves.

The Elis will face a much sterner test Saturday, when they travel to face the No. 5 University of Massachusetts. The Minutemen (8-0) currently boast the nation’s most potent offense, which averages 16.38 goals a game.

“We’ve got to play team defense,” Waldvogel said. “They are an unselfish team, and we have to play as unit against them. We also have to control the ball on offense.”

Massachusetts remains undefeated after a 16-10 victory over the No. 16 University of Maryland-Baltimore County last Saturday.

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