PROVO, Utah— The #2 Colorado State Rams opened up RMLC conference tournament play with a workman-like effort against #18 Utah, turning a 5-2 halftime score into a 15-7 victory. The Rams were paced by Cooper Kehoe’s six point effort, but the game was closer than the score may indicate as Utah made CSU work for everything they got during the game.
“I felt like our effort just wasn’t our best today,” said CSU coach Alex Smith. “Utah had a good gameplan and they played well, but we made a lot of mistakes in the middle of the field and played a bit out of character.”
Utah jumped out of the gates early with a goal from Tyler Kunz but CSU answered with three straight to close the quarter at 3-1. From there, the Utes were chasing and just unable to close the gap to closer than four throughout the game. After the Rams got up 5-2 at the half and 8-4 at the end of the third, they closed the game out with a 7-3 run in the fourth.
Aside from Kehoe’s three goals and three assists, CSU was led by Paul Larson’s five goals and Austin Fisher, who pitched in with two goals and three assists. Utah got three goals and two assists from Mark Manning and solid goaltending from Alex Watanawekin, who saved 12 shots. CSU’s Alex Jacques turned in a solid performance, making eight saves as well.
Next up for the Rams is Brigham Young who defeated Colorado 10-8 in the second semifinal. Game time for the RMLC championship game is 5:00pm on Saturday as the Rams look to win their first conference title since the 2006 season. BYU will be looking to avenge a 10-5 loss to CSU last weekend.
Game Stats
Lacrosse Box Score (Final)
Utah (10-5) vs. Colorado State (15-2)
Date: Apr 30, 2010
Attendance: 30
Weather: Cold and windy
SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Utah................ 1 1 2 3 - 7
Colorado State...... 3 2 3 7 - 15
Utah SCORING: GOALS: Manning, Mark 3; Brennan, Kyle 2; Schwoebel, Mack 1; Kunz, Tyler 1.
ASSISTS: Manning, Mark 2; Schwoebel, Mack 2.
Colorado State SCORING: GOALS: Larson, Paul 5; Kehoe, Cooper 3; Fisher, Austin 2; Konkel, Greyson 1; Jui, Matt 1; Grybinas, Dustin 1; Perotin, Ryan 1; Peper, Taylor 1.
ASSISTS: Fisher, Austin 3; Kehoe, Cooper 3; Fugier, Garrett 1; Konkel, Greyson 1; Miller, Luke 1; Morrison, Spencer 1; Warfield, Dan 1.
SHOTS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Utah................ 6 7 8 8 - 29
Colorado State...... 7 10 11 13 - 41
GROUND BALLS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Utah................ 8 4 9 6 - 27
Colorado State...... 9 6 9 12 - 36
FACE-OFFS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Total
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Utah................ 1-4 1-4 4-6 5-11 - 11-25
Colorado State...... 3-4 3-4 2-6 6-11 - 14-25
CLEARS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Total
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Utah................ 3-5 4-5 6-7 4-8 - 17-25
Colorado State...... 6-7 6-6 8-9 5-5 - 25-27
EXTRA-MAN OPPS 1 2 3 4 Total
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Utah................ 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 - 1-1
Colorado State...... 0-0 0-1 0-1 0-4 - 0-6
SAVES BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Utah................ 1 1 6 4 - 12
Colorado State...... 3 3 2 1 - 9
TURNOVERS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
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Utah................ 0 1 5 5 - 11
Colorado State...... 1 3 3 2 - 9
PENALTIES - Utah 6/3:00; Colorado State 1/0:30.
Officials:. Scorer: Ben Weston.