by Matt Kennedy
Everything went right for the Colorado Mesa University’s men’s lacrosse team this past weekend when they traveled to the West Coast and swept both Notre Dame de Namur and Whittier College.
On Friday, the Mavericks traveled to Notre Dame De Namur and demolished the Argonauts as three players from CMU delivered hat tricks. Senior Steve Brandenburg led the way with seven points which consisted of four goals and three assists.
Fellow teammates Reece Callies and Scott Foster were the other two players with hat tricks on Friday. Callies had four assists to go with his three goals.
Notre Dame de Namur was only able to score four points of their own because of outstanding defense by the Mavericks led by goalie Remi Reeves, who picked up his first win in the net.
Colorado Mesa rolled on to win 26-4 against the Argonauts, but the weekend trip was not over.
The next day, the Mavericks traveled Whittier to take on the Poets. The story was much of the same on Saturday despite a closer game.
Mesa shutout Whittier completely in the first half as they led 3-0 heading into the break. The trio of Jack Griffin, Calen Ketcham and Chad Merrick all scored their first goals of the season in the first half.
In the second half, it was the first taste of adversity of the early season for the Mavericks because the Poets ended up forcing 23 turnovers and scoring seven goals in the second half alone.
Penalties were also a big issue for Colorado Mesa as they committed nine violations compared to Whittier’s one.
Whittier ended the game on a 3-0 run within the last couple minutes, but it was not enough because the second half belonged to Reece Callies as he put up his second hat trick of the season.
Goalie Remi Reeves recorded 12 saves on the day ultimately assisting in the Mavericks defeating the Poets 9-7.
The weekend trip to the West Coast provided the perfect start to the season and provided a useful framework for things the Mavericks need to work on heading into the swing of the season.
“Playing back to back games in back to back days could impose a challenge” head coach Vince Smith said, but his team was ready for the challenge despite having to travel a long distance two days in a row.
“We are a much older team, and more mature then we were in the past,” Smith said.
Both teams in Notre Dame de Namur and Whittier were senior squads, but it did not stop the Mavericks from beating both of their respective opponents.
The Men’s team will continue to be on the road in the next number of weeks when they travel to Kansas to play the University of Saint Mary on Feb. 23.
