The Colorado Mesa Mavericks beat Lynn University 10-5 on Saturday. CMU was led by a tenacious defense and senior midfielder Jack Griffin had four goals and one assist on the day.
“Coming into the game we felt like this goalie needed to see a lot of shots because he is a very talented and he had 15 saves and a lot of them were really nice save” CMU Coach Vince Smith said, “but kudos to our offense and they continued to shoot the ball appropriately not settling for the first shot but looking for the best shot.”
The first goal of the game was scored by Noah Kellner from Lynn University which would be the only goal of the first quarter. Both goalies played big in the first quarter with seven combined saves. With a little under half of the quarter left to play Mavericks goalie senior Remi Reeves went down with a leg injury and was replaced by junior Christian Cherry.
Five minutes into the second quarter junior attackmen/midfielder Joe Wulforst IV tied this game up for the Mavericks, but Lynn would answer with a goal of their own about two minutes later to put them back up. CMU’s Griffin would grab his first of four with a little under three minutes to go in the second quarter putting a rocket past Lynn’s Collin McClelland. Mesa’s defense caused six turnovers in this quarter to help get momentum going into the half with the score tied.
The third quarter was when CMU took hold of this game and took all the momentum that Lynn had before. Senior midfielder Brandon Wilson opened it up for the Mavericks by ripping one past McClelland. Lynn would answer almost immediately with their only goal of the quarter. The story of this quarter was the Mavericks ability to possess the ball and limit their turnovers while causing them on the other end and playing make-it-take-it lacrosse winning 4-6 faceoffs.
The Mavericks Jack Griffin struck first in the game and would score two of his four goals and his lone assist in this quarter. Lynn’s Jared Chaloux picked up both the Fighting Knights goals in the period. The Fighting Knights had another four turnovers in this quarter which proved to be their biggest issue this game.
“Ultimately, the guys stuck with the game plan and kept fighting, in the first quarter it was a 1-1 draw and it looked like it could go either way and then it went to 2-2 at the half, and our guys continued to grind and want it,” Smith said.
Freshman attackmen/midfielder Nate Surd was second on the team in points with two goals and an assist on the day. Christian Cherry had nine saves with a .692 save percentage. The Mavericks had four players with two or more points on the day.
CMU played with more effort than Lynn and it led them to the 10-5 win giving them a 3-2 record on the year.
The Mavericks next game is their home opener against Rollins University on Wednesday, March 13th at 7 pm.
