Yale Athletics

The No. 14 Yale men’s lacrosse team (2–1, 0–0 Ivy) won its second game of the season in a 13–12 overtime win over the University of Massachusetts (1–3, 0–0 CAA). The Bulldogs won the game with just 39 seconds to play in overtime on Matt Brandau’s ’23 fourth goal of the afternoon.

The Bulldogs were led by two strong individual performances: goaltender Jared Paquette had the best game of his young career, posting 18 saves and a .600 save percentage, while Brandau continued his hot start to the season with four goals and three assists.

For much of the game, the Bulldogs were chasing the University of Massachusetts, as the team trailed at the end of each of the first three quarters. 

“We’ve talked for two years now on our identity of being a team that could come back from behind and get a win,”  head coach Andy Shay said to Yale Athletics. “Against Penn State didn’t feel them; today I did. In the fourth quarter I had that feeling like we are getting better. To respond to a challenge like that … I’m proud of our guys but we have a lot of work to do. We didn’t do everything right in the second half, but we made the improvements we needed to.”

The Bulldogs also displayed the same depth they’ve shown all season, with their 13 goals coming from eight different players. 

While Brandau led the way for the offense, Leo Johnson ’25 continued his strong start to his rookie season with two goals and an assist, while fellow first-year Johnny Keib ’25 scored his first Yale goal on the man-up. 

Brandau leads the team in goals, assists and total points with a statline of 10–5–15.

Overtime was the Bulldogs’ best period of the game. The Elis outshot the University of Massachusetts 7–0 during the stretch and won by putting the ball in the hands of their best player. 

With seven seconds left on the shot clock, Brandau dodged from behind the goal to the far side of the field before creating space to rip a low-to-low shot into the net and sending Reese Stadium into pandemonium.

“This is the first lacrosse game I’ve been to at Yale,” Joaquín Fernandez-Duque ’25 said of his experience watching the game. “I came with some friends and the overtime was electric. I’m definitely going to go to more of these games.”

Despite the win, and likely due to the fact that it took overtime to beat an unranked team, the Bulldogs dropped one spot in the Inside Lacrosse national rankings to No. 14. The win also kept the Bulldogs perfect at home this season. 

For the University of Massachusetts, the loss showed that the team is capable of playing with anyone in the nation, but still has room to improve.

“Up-and-down, back-and-forth game,” University of Massachusetts head coach Greg Cannella said to the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. “We were very competitive … Yale is obviously an excellent program and they have been for quite some time.”

The season won’t get any easier for the Bulldogs, as each of the next five games for the team come against top 20 ranked squads in the country.

The Bulldogs’ next game will be in Denver against the Denver Pioneers at 1 p.m. on Saturday.