PUEBLO, Colo. (April 9, 2021) – The Colorado State University Pueblo men's lacrosse team suffered a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference home loss to Westminster College Friday at the Art and Lorraine Gonzales Stadium.
The ThunderWolves (2-3, 1-1 RMAC) won the first and fourth quarters, but were outscored 12-3 in the middle frames to fall to the Griffins (3-4, 1-1 RMAC). WC totaled 46 shots and put 31 of them on the cage. The Pack placed 17 of their 29 shots on goal. Westminster won two important stat categories to control possession, as it totaled 44 ground balls to the home team's 21 and produced a 23-8 advantage on the faceoff.
Eight different members of the Pack scored and on eight of the 11 goals the Pack registered an assist. Sophomore midfielder
Ian Noonan had a career-high four goals on seven shots. He also didn't turn the ball over and had one caused turnover.
POSTGAME COMMENT
"It's always a tough battle against a well-coached Westminster team," said CSU Pueblo Men's Lacrosse Head Coach
Sean Blair. "Our overall game plan was effective, though Westminster did just enough in the third for their runs to be effective enough to put the game from our reach. Great effort from our guys tonight with the performance from
Ian Noonan moving to attack and stepping up big. Also, an excellent job in clearing by
Tavian Watson and
Michael DeMaio, as well as a solid defense effort with our settled and man down defense. Lacrosse is a game of runs and ebbs and flows, unfortunately tonight, transition cost us. We are excited to have the opportunity to regroup and compete against a skilled Colorado Mesa program on Sunday."
PLAYER PERFORMANCES
Freshman
Connor Owen (M, Keller, Texas) totaled five points, as he scored once and assisted on four more Pack tallies.
Senior
Michael DeMaio (M, Gambrills, Md.) posted five caused turnovers and collected four ground balls.
Freshman midfielder
Tyler Gardner (Erie, Colo.) led the team with six ground balls.
Senior
Tavian Watson (LSM, Aurora, Colo.) contributed on both sides of the ball, as he scored on his only shot and dished out an assist. He also had four ground balls and caused two turnovers.
In goal,
Ethan Ferrie (So., Littleton, Colo.) had 12 saves.
SUMMARY
The Pack scored 1:36 into the contest on a goal from
Boston Dumas (Jr., M, Ogden, Utah), then two goals just 18 seconds apart had the Griffins ahead with 8:52 left.
After trading goals, the ThunderWolves scored three times in the final 2:23 of the quarter to open up a 5-3 lead. Noonan scored twice in the late run.
CSU Pueblo didn't score in the second quarter, but were able to control the damage and only allowed three goals to trail 6-5 at the half.
The Pack won the first four minutes of the second half, as a goal from
Logan Naves (Fr., A, Highlands Ranch, Colo.) and the only man up goal of the game by freshman
Aaron Clark (A, Spring Branch, Texas) had the ThunderWolves leading 7-6.
Unfortunately, just 45 seconds after Clark's goal the Griffins scored, which started a run of nine unanswered goals during 10 minutes of game time to break open a 15-7 lead. Noonan netted his hat trick right before the end of the quarter and the Pack went to the fourth down 15-8.
CSU Pueblo won the final frame 3-2, but it wouldn't be enough to overcome the previous 30 minutes in the six-goal loss.
UP NEXT
The ThunderWolves will host No. 18 Colorado Mesa University Sunday with a 12 p.m. faceoff.
-- PACK --
