FORT COLLINS, Colorado— Faced with the toughest game of the season, the Rams did not back down. They stayed neck and neck with No. 1 University of Michigan until the last quarter when Michigan took a firm lead and won the game 10-6.
“It was a great lacrosse game today. The scoreboard wasn’t what we wanted at the end, but we fought the whole game long,” Head Coach Alex Smith said. “All the credit to Michigan for outplaying us in the fourth quarter and having a great game plan. I thought it was pretty evenly matched except for that four minute stretch where they pulled away a bit in the fourth,” Smith said.
Goals went back and forth between the teams, making it clear why both were ranked the top two in the MCLA. With the scores tied at threes at halftime, the defense had something to be proud of.
“Pat Sullivan held one of the best players in the country to no goals in settled offense,” Smith said, “and Andrew Stein, Tyler Zabor and Hayden Porter were terrific for us too. I think if we can take advantage on the other side of the ball a little bit better and clear with more consistency against them, we can have a good shot if we are lucky enough to see them again.”
To improve their game and prepare to finish the season as strongly, Smith plans to work on shooting smarter on offense and getting more competitive at the key moments when facing off. “We did pretty good all game, but when it really counted, they made the plays and we were just a little short,” he said.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Michigan got away from CSU. With a few well executed plays, the Wolverines gained a four point lead.
“You definitely can’t fault our effort today. In my mind, we played very well and easily could have won had we just turned a couple things around. Unfortunately, you can’t almost lose and be champions. If we really want the ultimate goal, we are going to have to figure out how to put a full game together against a very quality team,” Smith said.
The next game will be against Michigan State on Sunday, April 18 at 1:00 p.m. on the CSU intramural fields.
Game Statistics
Lacrosse Box Score (Final)
Michigan (10-1) vs. Colorado State (12-1)
SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Michigan............ 2 1 2 5 - 10
Colorado State...... 0 3 2 1 - 6
Michigan SCORING: GOALS: Rogers, David 2; Yealy, Trevor 2; Zorowich, Kevin 1;
Ein, Joshua 1; Hrusovsky, Anthony 1; McIntyre, Clark 1; Goldberg, Jamison 1;
Sutton, Sean 1.
ASSISTS: Kirshner, Jordan 1; Rogers, David 1; Tintchev, Svetin 1.
Colorado State SCORING: GOALS: Miller, Luke 2; Kehoe, Cooper 1; Larson, Paul 1;
Fisher, Austin 1; Unkrich, Stephen 1.
ASSISTS: Kehoe, Cooper 2; Devlin, Alex 1.
SHOTS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Michigan............ 7 7 12 11 - 37
Colorado State...... 5 6 7 8 - 26
GROUND BALLS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Michigan............ 8 8 7 9 - 32
Colorado State...... 7 7 8 8 - 30
FACE-OFFS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Total
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Michigan............ 3-3 3-5 3-5 4-7 - 13-20
Colorado State...... 0-3 2-5 2-5 3-7 - 7-20
CLEARS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Total
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Michigan............ 5-7 6-6 5-5 7-9 - 23-27
Colorado State...... 4-7 7-9 6-8 2-5 - 19-29
EXTRA-MAN OPPS 1 2 3 4 Total
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Michigan............ 0-0 0-0 1-3 0-0 - 1-3
Colorado State...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 - 0-1
SAVES BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Michigan............ 4 2 5 3 - 14
Colorado State...... 4 4 6 0 - 14
TURNOVERS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Michigan............ 3 6 5 4 - 18
Colorado State...... 2 3 1 3 - 9
PENALTIES - Michigan 1/0:30; Colorado State 3/1:30.