PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's lacrosse will play its first of four consecutive home games for the 2023 season this Saturday, April 1 as the ThunderWolves open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with a 2 p.m. game against Adams State at the Art and Lorraine Gonzales Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium.
Saturday's game will mark the first of four consecutive home games for the Pack as they will also host Westminster next Friday, April 7 at 3 p.m., before hosting Colorado Mesa on Sunday, April 16 at 12 p.m. and then conclude the homestand on Wednesday, April 19 with a 6:30 p.m. game against Colorado College.
CSU Pueblo, who is coached by
Sean Blair, enters the weekend still looking for its first win of the season as the Pack are 0-7 overall and will play its first home this season after opening the campaign with seven consecutive road games. The Pack, though, hasn't played since suffering a 13-8 loss last Monday at Quincy.
Offensively, the Pack has scored 40 goals in seven games and are averaging 5.7 goals per game as freshman midfielder
Lane Lessley (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood) leads the way with eight goals and has added two assists for 10 points. Senior attacker
Logan Naves (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Highlands Ranch) and freshman
Nathan Liderman (Bend, Ore./Summit) have each scored six goals.
Overall, six Pack players have tallied three or goals on the season and two players have recorded five or more assists on the year as senior midfielder
Ian Noonan (Wilmington, Del./University of Tampa) leads the way with nine assists and also had a team-high 12 points. Naves has had five assists to go with his six goals.
Lessley leads the way with 32 shots, while Naves and freshman midfielder
Chris Easley (Southington, Conn./Weber) have each taken 23 shots.
Freshman midfielder
Bryce Campbell (Meridian, Id./Meridian) has been the primary face-off person for the Pack this season as he is 56-for-126 on face-offs. In addition, sophomore midfielder
Harley Williams (Edmonton, Alberta/Dominican University) is 8-for-30 on face-offs.
Defensively, the Pack are allowing 15.4 goals per game and have caused 34 turnovers and collected 146 ground balls.
Junior defender
Cornelius Healy (Keller, Texas/Keller) leads the way in ground balls with 20, while senior midfielder
Turner Dirk (Strathmore, Alberta/Holy Trinity Academy) has had 18 and Naves has recorded 15. Dirk and Healy have each caused four turnovers.
Graduate student
Ethan Ferrie (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) leads the way in goal for the Pack as he has recorded 105 saves and allowed 101 goals. His 15.00 saves per game are tops in the league, while his 51 percent save percentage is fourth in the league. Ferrie has been a two-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Week this season and recorded a school record 24 saves earlier this season at Maryville (Mo.) University.
ABOUT ADAMS STATE
Adams State comes into Saturday's game with Pack sporting a 1-2 overall record as their lone win came in the season opener on March 20 as the Grizzlies picked up a 19-2 win. Since that win, ASU lost back-to-back games at Quincy (13-6) and a neutral site game played at Quincy against Benedictine (Kan.), a game ASU lost 11-10. Saturday's game will also be the first RMAC game of the season for the Grizzlies, who have lost 31 straight league games since earning an 11-5 win over Maryville on April 7, 2017. ASU has gone 0-6 in league play the past two seasons.
As a team, Adams State has scored 35 goals in three games and is averaging 12.4 goals per game with Tyler Hubbard and Travis Brave Heart both having scored eight goals on the year. In addition to Hubbard and Brave Heart, Dawson Balabanoff has scored five goals. Hubbard and Brave Heart have also combined for five assists as they have tallied 11 and 10 points respectively.
Matthew Lash is one of eight Grizzlies that have recorded two or more assists on the year as ASU has recorded 23 assists in three games. Lash leads the way with four assists, while Hubbard and Balabanoff have each had three assists.
Brave Heart, Hubbard and Balabanoff have each taken 20 or more shots on the season with Brave Heart leading the way with 23 shots, while the other two have taken 20 shots.
Jamal Wilson is 22-for-48 on face-offs this season for the Grizzlies, while Andrew Leonard is 8-for-16 on face-offs.
Defensively, the Grizzlies have caused 29 turnovers, collected 87 ground balls and have allowed 26 goals as they are allowing 9.2 goals per game this season.
Brannan Grass leads the way in caused turnovers with six, while Cayden Hultquist has caused four turnovers. Hunter Bennett leads the way in ground balls with 11, while Grant Jardine and Grass have recorded nine.
In goal, the Grizzlies have played two players with Ryan Berger having played nearly 102 minutes in goal on the season. Berger leads the team with 20 saves and has allowed 19 goals, while Jamison Blackwell has played 68 minutes in goal and has made nine saves and allowed seven goals.
Adams State is coached by Jerome Austin as he is in his fifth season directing the Grizzlies program. Austin has posted a 5-32 record and is 0-20 in RMAC play as ASU's coach.
Saturday's game will mark the 15th all-time meeting between the two schools in men's lacrosse with CSU Pueblo holding a 9-5 advantage in the series. The Pack have won nine straight games in the series, including sweeping both meetings during the 2022 season as the Pack won 18-5 in Pueblo and picked up a 15-7 win in Alamosa.
