The Colorado Mesa Mavericks defeated Adams State University in their first matchup of the season 17-5. The Mavericks were led by senior faceoff man Michael Marino who went 21-22 on faceoffs and 11 groundballs, and junior attackman/midfielder Joe Wulforst IV who had three goals and one assist on the day.
“I think that we came out a little flat, we played well but we lacked a little bit of energy and focus, I think that this week kind of played a toll on us mentally,” Head coach Vince Smith said “So we came out a little flat, and I think the guys to get to next Saturday, but we were fortunate to play well enough to win but it will need to be a lot better next weekend.”
Sophomore attackman/midfielder Carson Schwark opened the scoring up in this game scoring on a man-up opportunity with 12:49 in the first quarter. Adams State had three penalties in this quarter, and CMU capitalized on all three opportunities. Michael Marino won all eight faceoffs in this quarter to get the early 6-2 lead.
Wulforst IV got the Mavericks on the board first in the second quarter, and senior midfielder Jack Griffin would put another up just 20 seconds after Wulforst. ASU in this quarter had eight turnovers compared to CMU’s two, but the Grizzlies goalie Connor Johnson had 15 saves in the first half to help keep their deficit to 10-2. Wulforst scored two of his three goals in this quarter to give his Mavericks the lead.
“Ultimately, we tried to get them to catch the ball deep into the corners, so they couldn’t quickly transition the ball through X and then look inside, so we were just trying to make them play out of their rhythm and comfort zone,” Smith said.
CMU’s sophomore midfielder Ethan Gant got the scoring started in the second half by ripping one past Johnson. Adams State would answer with Riley Morrison scoring two in a row to try to get a momentum swing for the Grizzlies. The Mavericks outscored ASU in the third quarter 4-2 giving them a 14-4 lead going into the fourth quarter, with four different scorers adding onto their lead.
The Mavericks senior midfielder Michael Dasch Jr. scored to open the quarter, but ASU answered with Johnny Rosas scoring his first of the day. Sophomore midfielder/attackman Jake Keyes scored the final goal of the day for both teams with 7:43 left in the game. The Grizzlies goalie Johnson finished the game with 27 saves on 44 shots on goal.
“Connor is a great goalie, and he is very good on facing shots that are directly in front of him if he isn’t moving pipe-to-pipe, he is also really good against shots coming down the pipe, where guys are shooting it at him when he is flat,” Smith said “We wanted to get him to move and reset his feet, and I think when we did that we had a higher success rate of scoring versus when we were just throwing gum balls at the net.”
CMU was 25-26 on clears in the game, with only eight turnovers, and 48 groundballs. Schwark was the second leading scorer on the day with three goals.
Senior midfielder Brandon Wilson, redshirt sophomore Clayton Grave and Griffin all had two goals, CMU improved to 7-6 on the year and will face off against Westminster at Walker Field April 20 for their home game of the regular season.
