Normally, one or two players lead a team to victory. But the men’s lacrosse team demonstrated that a team effort can work just as well.

The Elis (4-5, 0-3 Ivy) dominated Holy Cross (0-9) last night at Johnson Field to snatch a needed win, 10-4. Ten different Elis scored in the victory, each finding the net once. Coming off of Saturday’s loss to No. 6 Princeton, the Bulldogs needed Tuesday’s game to generate confidence.

“We did get our confidence back. We didn’t blow them out,” faceoff man Dan Kallaugher ’06 said. “Everybody had a great time playing the game. When you’re having a good time, you have more confidence when you play.”

Kallaugher, fifth in the nation with a .644 faceoff percentage prior to last night’s game, won 15 of 17 faceoffs. With 5:04 remaining in the first quarter, Kallaugher won a draw and ran down the field to score the first goal of the game for the Bulldogs. While the Crusaders were the first team to get on the board, the Elis prevented Holy Cross from scoring again until the end of the third quarter.

Attack Tyler Casertano ’08 said the goal of the game was to go out and play hard, and that the win was a consistent effort resulting from strong offense and good ball movement.

“It was great to see well-rounded offense today in which everybody contributed,” Casertano said.

Casertano led the Bulldogs with three assists on the day.

The Elis out-shot the Crusaders in every period except the fourth and hustled after ground balls, winning 46 to Holy Cross’ 26.

“Going into this game, we hoped to get everybody in,” defenseman Gray Eklund ’06 said. “Top to bottom, everybody can get it done.”

In the second quarter, attackmen Chris Kempner ’07, Dan Brillman ’06, Kyle Washabaugh ’08 and rookie Michael Karwoski ’09 all scored to send the Elis into halftime up 6-1. The Bulldogs out-shot the Crusaders 24-9 in the first half.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs’ offense continued to shine with an opening goal from midfielder Jonathan Koenig ’08.

Eklund said one of the highlights of last night’s game was midfielder James Rump’s ’07 goal, made off a split move in which he looked like a “ballet dancer” in the third quarter. He was the first long pole to score a goal in four years.

Midfielders David Schecter ’06 and Brian Belsky ’07 scored the last two Yale goals in the third quarter to increase the lead to 10-2.

In the fourth quarter, with a significant lead, the Elis were able to give younger players a chance to play. Holy Cross kept playing its first line guys and tried to make a comeback, but only could hit the net twice.

“The younger guys played really well tonight and really played hard, especially at the end of the game, and it was great to see them making it happen on the field,” Casertano said.

The Bulldogs now turn their focus to this weekend’s home game against Brown in hopes of capturing their first Ivy win of the season.

“It’s a big game against Brown,” Eklund said. “An Ivy League game on home turf. We want to play loose. We’ll try to dominate the ground ball and work on hustle plays. They’re a good team, offense to defense.”