A rather disappointing l4-10 loss for the Colorado Mesa University men’s lacrosse team at the hands of Westminster College on Saturday caused a crucial blow to CMU’s hope for hosting the RMAC Tournament. The Griffins were led a great defensive effort and attackman Kolton Atkinson who had six goals in the game.
“I think that they wanted it more, and that is a tough thing to say on senior day, it’s a tough thing to admit ever, they made the plays when they needed to, they did all the little things,” Head Coach Vince Smith said. “We really struggled to do a whole heck of a lot right, we started the game strong and you can’t go down 6-2 at the start of a quarter.”
The first quarter got off to a hot start as senior midfielder Brandon Wilson gave the Mavericks the first lead. Westminster answered with two of their own goals, but Wilson would answer again for the Mavericks. The quarter was soon controlled by the Griffins as they were taking high percentage shots and took a 6-2 lead going into the second. Westminster’s senior faceoff man Michael Marino won five faceoffs to start the game.
Jack Griffin and Johnny Cary opened the second quarter for the Mavericks putting some heaters into the back of the net and cut the lead to 6-4. After those two goals, neither team scored for the next 10 minutes, until Atkinson would score his third of the day on a man-up opportunity. The second period of play flipped and on the last play of the quarter, freshman attackman Nate Surd picked up a ground ball off a missed shot and got the ball back to Wilson for the goal right before the half to cut the deficit to 5-7.
“We didn’t say ‘Hey let’s turn off the pressure.’ I think it was just guys getting settled in and feeling like what they were doing was enough, and it’s never enough until the games over,” Smith said.
CMU’s Cary would start the scoring off in the third quarter with a man-up goal after Atkinson got called for being offsides. To start the second half, the Griffins came out with a ton of energy, and only let up two goals in the quarter which both came while CMU had a man-up advantage. Both teams won three faceoffs in the period, but WC won the ground ball battle 9-6 and maintained their lead 10-7.
The Mavericks scored first in the fourth quarter, but WC answered with two of their own, as they were trying to put the nail in the coffin early in the quarter. The dagger finally did come with 1:11 left in the game as WC’s goalie Sean Edwards scored a full-field goal while they were man-down, as CMU’s goalie Christian Cherry was running the 10-man ride trying to get the ball back. Both teams finished with 37 groundballs, and 10 saves but the Mavericks just didn’t have enough to win on senior day.
“The seniors have been awesome, and they have a chance to tie the program win mark if we win four more games… they have just always played with a great deal of heart and passion, and they are just a bunch of really good kids,” Smith said.
CMU was led in scoring by Wilson who had three goals and one assist, and Cary who had three goals in the game. Griffin was third with two goals and two assists in his last home game as a Maverick.
CMU’s next game with be Friday April 26th against Adams State, on the ASU lacrosse field in Alamosa, CO.
