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2002 Season Recap
by Alex Smith, '02
Colorado State started the 2002 season with high hopes after winning their
second championship in three years under coach Flip Naumburg in 2001. With
an extremely balanced squad of ten freshmen, ten sophomores, ten juniors and
ten seniors, the Rams rolled into the year with the goal of playing in four
consecutive national championship games. A seasoned unit of returning
players was the nucleus of the team. Mike Napolilli, Ryan Davis, and Nick
Stanitz-Harper manned an experienced attack. Doug Priebe, Jared Katz, and
Kale Nelson provided leadership for a midfield corps that ended up being a
bright spot on the team. Mark Plonkey showed his versatility, leading the
defense from the midfield, the face-off circle and at close. Fresh faces
filled in the lineup, from midfielder Tim Farquhar, who would prove to be
one of the Rams’ most valuable players, to defenders Jeff Schmid and Ryan
Price, who joined Plonkey in protecting the goal and first year starter Alex
Smith. Expectations were raised even more when CSU won all four games at
the Best of the West Tournament in Las Vegas at the end of the fall.
The first test for the Rams came with league and in-state rival Colorado.
Colorado State extended their winning streak to six over the Buffs with a
solid 15-6 win in Boulder to go to 2-0. RMILL league opponent Utah Valley
State then came to Fort Collins. Assistant coach Jason Seidel took the helm
for the first time with Naumburg out of town and guided the Rams to a 20-3
victory. Unfortunately for Colorado State, they would not play again for
nearly two weeks. Minnesota-Duluth’s trip to Colorado was wrecked by a
snowstorm and the Rams would not play another game until Stanford in San
Diego.
Two familiar opponents and one hyped-up host team welcomed the Rams to sunny
San Diego where UC-San Diego held their annual lacrosse-fest. Minnesota
State-Mankato, UCLA and Michigan State all played games at UCSD during a
weekend that saw its fair share of action. First on the docket for the Rams
was Stanford, the team they had beat for the national championship game in
2001. Colorado State played a solid game defensively and controlled the
tempo on offense while running away with a 13-7 win. To that point, the
game was the most complete team win of the season and the Rams looked poised
to defend their #1 national ranking against Sonoma State the next night. In
what would be an eerie omen of the future, Sonoma held off Colorado State in
a game that did not see the Rams best. The 11-9 loss put a sour damper
right in the middle of CSU’s spring break vacation. To close out the road
trip, Colorado State would have to do battle with the Tritons of UCSD. The
home team was determined to put on a good show for the fans and came out
with guns ablaze. A drained CSU team could not get a point on the board for
much of the first half and trailed throughout the game. With the season
reaching a critical point, Colorado State came through in the clutch behind
backup goalie Kevin Krcek (14 saves), making his first start of the year,
and Tim Farquhar’s game winner to escape with an 8-7 overtime win.
The Sonoma game started an ugly losing trend for the Rams. Coming back from
Spring Break fresh and rejuvenated, Colorado State found themselves up
against league rival Brigham Young in game played at Hughes Stadium, the
university’s football facility. It was the first time a sport besides
football had ever been played in the stadium. 3500 fans, the most ever at a
CSU lacrosse game and maybe ever at a USLIA game, made for quite an
atmosphere for one of the most heated rivalries in the nation. But to the
dismay of the masses, BYU made no mistake in thumping the Rams on their home
turf 17-10. The game saw two major injuries that would affect Colorado
State for the rest of the season; freshman Dave Clark tore his ACL, leaving
the Rams with no one to take face-offs, and goaltender Smith broke his hand
on a shot early in the game, leaving him in a cast for the rest of the
season. Going to Colorado College, a solid Division III program from
Colorado Springs, the Rams would need to come together more than ever to
pull off the upset. However, CC once again pulled out a tight win over the
Rams 15-11 and CSU had suddenly lost its last three big games.
Following the game against Colorado College, CSU traveled to Ann Arbor, MI
to participate in the third annual Michigan Invitational. The Rams had gone
3-0 in 2001 and hoped to repeat those results against Michigan, SUNY
Buffalo, and Texas A&M. Michigan was determined not to lose their third in
a row to the Rams and solidly beat them 13-9 in front of the maize and blue
faithful. Colorado State’s year needed to change in a hurry if they were to
just return to the USLIA tournament, let alone fight for their third crown
in four years. Against Buffalo, the Rams fell behind at halftime and were
playing some of their worst lacrosse of the year. Dead set on turning the
year around, Colorado State came together as a team to soundly beat the
Bulls 20-9. They then came back the next day and handed Texas A&M a 14-4
thumping. The score of the games were not as important as the way the team
won.
Heading back home for a regular season ending homestand against Utah and
Colorado, the year appeared to be on the upswing. Beating Utah 19-3 and
Colorado 10-4 further continued the momentum and gave the Rams sole
possession of second place in the RMILL for the rest of the season. That
spot would pit them against the Buffaloes for the third time that year in
the RMILL semi-finals in Provo, UT.
With the regular season over and the playoffs begun, Colorado State knew
what they were getting themselves into when they arrived in Utah to play the
Colorado Buffaloes for the third time. The Buffs had no way of going to the
national tournament without beating the Rams and they weren’t about to let
their season go away quietly. In one of the most entertaining games of the
year, Colorado and Colorado State went at. Colorado controlled much of the
action early on. Playing their best lacrosse in some time, the Buffs held
the Rams on the ropes for much of the second half. Finally, with the game
on the line, freshman Tim Farquhar stole the show, scoring five times,
including the game tying and winning goals to send CSU to the RMILL title
game to face Brigham Young.
The RMILL Championship started much the same as the earlier game in Fort
Collins. The teams racked up 13 goals in the first half as the Rams led 7-6
at the break. But in the second half, Colorado State caught fire, torching
the Cougars for nine more second half goals while giving up only one. The
16-7 win was one of the high points of the season for the Rams, who had now
won two out of three RMILL Championships.
Going into St. Louis as the #3 seed, Colorado State was beginning to build
its confidence to save a season that was almost lost just a couple weeks
earlier. First year entrant Washington managed just three goals against
Colorado State in a 20-3 loss and CSU advanced to the quarterfinals to play
Stanford. Stanford played a conservative game all day after getting an
early lead on CSU and the Rams would need their best to get by the Cardinal.
The Rams got a big goal late in the fourth, topping off a five goal fourth
quarter comeback that tied the game and sent it into Colorado State’s second
overtime of the season. In the overtime frame, Jared Katz took a rebound
off Smith coast to coast in a spectacular effort that led to a Jim Hasson
goal to put Stanford away 10-9. Colorado State had advanced to their fifth
straight USLIA final four appearance.
The tournament did not feature a day off in 2002 and Colorado State would
have to come back the next day to do battle with a UC-Santa Barbara team
that dismantled #2 Auburn the day before. Colorado State stepped up and won
most phases of the game, including the score, which read 12-9 in the Rams’
favor as time expired. The team was once again playing some of its best
ball of the season going into the national championship game against Sonoma
State, who was undefeated in USLIA play during the rest of the year.
For the first part of the game Colorado State held the ball and seemed to be
controlling the action. But getting one past All-American goalie Dominic
Gomez proved to be difficult and Colorado State could not get a firm grip on
the scoreboard. In the final 18 minutes, the Rams simply ran out of gas.
Sonoma outscored CSU 6-3 during that time to put an end to the repeat bid
and win their first national championship 13-10 over Colorado State. The
loss sent the Rams’ record in national championship games to 2-2 in the last
four years. The seniors in their last game that day had played in a
national championship game every year since they arrived at Colorado State.
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Flip's Journal
Read a very interesting log of the CSU head coach's thoughts. |
All-Time Points Leaders
since 1998 season: G-A-Pts
1 Mike Roth ('01) 243-132-375
2 Mike Napolilli ('02) 170-160-330
3 Pat Shanley ('98) 138-68-206
4 Ryan Davis ('02) 107-66-173
5 Kelten Johnson ('04) 76-93-169
6 Nick Stanitz-Harper ('05) 123-37-160
7 Jim Hasson ('03) 74-46-120
8 Tim Farquhar ('05) 74-43-117
9 Ryan Ferrin ('00) 60-53-113
10 Brian Linehan ('99) 62-34-96
All-Time Save Leaders
since 1998 season: Saves
1 Alex Smith ('03) 232
2 Cale Vanvelkinburgh ('01) 188
3 Pete Jokisch ('06) 117
See Full Lists
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Schedule/Results
2003 Game Results
2/15 - Arizona - Win 6-5
2/22 - Colorado - Win 12-11 OT
2/25 - Northern Colorado - Cancelled
3/1 - Colorado College - Cancelled
3/2 - Illinois - Win 9-3
3/7 - Virginia Tech - Win 15-4
3/8 - Florida - Win 18-12
3/9 - Florida State - Cancelled
3/10 - Auburn - Cancelled
3/25 - Oregon - Win 17-8
3/29 - Boise State - Cancelled
3/30 - Galyan's - Cancelled
3/30 - Colorado College - Loss 12-11
4/2 - Denver U. Club - Cancelled
4/4 - BYU - Win 7-6
4/5 - Utah Valley State - Win 17-5
4/5 - Utah - Loss 4-5
4/8 - Sonoma State - Win 6-5
4/12 - Michigan - Win 11-6
4/19 - Colorado - Win 7-5
4/22 - Northern Colorado - Win 25-3
RMILL Play-Offs
4/25 - Utah - Win 13-2
4/26 - BYU - Win 8-7
USLIA National Championship
5/7 - Boston College - Win 18-2
5/8 - Texas A&M - Win 12-9
5/9 - Sonoma State - Win 8-6
5/10 - UC Santa Barbara - Win 6-4
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USLIA National Poll
Announced on 5/16/03
1 Colorado State (30) - 18-2
2 UC Santa Barbara - 21-2
3 Sonoma State - 17-3
4 Brigham Young - 13-6
5 Texas A & M - 20-4
6 Michigan - 16-5
7 Florida - 15-5
8 Simon Fraser - 13-3
9 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - 11-8
10 Oakland - 15-3
11 Minnesota - Duluth - 18-3
12 Chico State - 12-5
13 Colorado - 11-9
14 Chapman - 12-7
15 Arizona - 9-8
16 Auburn - 10-6
17 UC San Diego - 10-4
18 Boston College - 12-3
19 Oregon - 11-5
20 Georgia Tech - 11-5
21 Washington U. - 8-7
22 Virginia Tech - 11-7
23 Stanford - 6-6
24 Texas Tech - 10-3
25 California - 10-5 |
New Ram Gear
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