Box Score ALAMOSA, Colo. (March 6, 2015)—The Adams State University Grizzlies opened up their season at home against the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks in what was a match up of the preseason poll's top two teams.
 
The Mavericks drew first blood at 13:17 in the first quarter with a goal by Austin Pridham. In a battle that saw ASU and CMU pretty evenly matched, the Grizzlies answered back at 8:25 with a goal by Danny Mayes, to tie the score at one. Due to a faceoff violation by Adams State, CMU was able to capitalize and make the score 2-1 with a goal by Mavericks' Mitch Flaherty at 8:05. The game stayed within one until Pridham managed to score his second goal of the quarter at 5:27.  Within nine seconds of that goal, Adams State won the faceoff with a Ryan Helfand groundball, which resulted in an Alex Prather goal to make the score 3-2.  Again, the battle between the Mavericks and the Grizzlies was close, and at 3:36 John Beedle scored his first goal of the game to tie it at three.  The last two minutes of the quarter saw the Mavericks nab two quick goals by Michael Belmford (1:10) and Stephen Dunn (:41) to provide the Mavericks a two goal cushion after one.
 
To start the second quarter, the Grizzlies displayed a strong defense to keep the Mavericks at bay until 8:58, where CMU's Pridham scored his third goal of the game off of an assist by David Solomon to make the score 6-3. Beedle managed to fire off back- to- back goals for ASU to bring the score back within one. However, in what was also an offensive battle, Mavericks' Solomon scored at 4:35 to make the score 7-5 late in the second.  Shortly there after, CMU opened the lead back up to three at 3:39 with a goal by Flaherty, his second of the half, to an 8-5 lead.  The rest of the quarter was an excellent display of why these two teams are the top teams in the preseason poll, but with 39 seconds left in the half, the Mavericks widened the lead to four when a goal by Griffen Perkiel off a Shane O'Neill assist made the score 9-5 to end the first half of the game.
 
The start of the second half of the game was Maverick domination that saw Pridham score his fourth goal at 13:09 to make the score 10-5.  Danny Mayes managed to get two quick shots, but CMU goalie Zach Weaver got a stick on both of them. At 11:28 Mavericks' Ryan Arnold took a slashing penalty that allowed the Grizzlies to take advantage of an extra man opportunity with a goal by Josh Peterman to make the score 10-6. The next two minutes saw ASU gain some momentum and at 9:42, Seth Stowell brought the lead back to within three. At 8:54, CMU's Perkiel netted his second goal of the game to make the score 11-7.  Keeping up with the on going battle, the Mavericks again took a five point lead at 6:27 with a Dunn scoring his second goal of the game off an assist by Josh Russell to make the score 12-7. Shortly after that, ASU made a costly turnover that resulted in the Mavericks' O'Niell taking advantage and scoring his first goal of the game at 4:01 in the third. Two seconds later, CMU struck again with Pridham netting his fifth goal off an assist by Zach Bullett. The Grizzlies fought hard to bring the game back, but the third quarter saw the Mavericks with their highest lead of the game at 14-7.
 
The fourth quarter saw Adams State come out fighting with shots from Beedle and Mayes that ended up wide of their target. However, the hard work paid off and ASU's Michael Leary scored his first goal of the game at 11:25. With a faceoff violation by the Mavericks and a slashing penalty at 11:15 by CMU's Conner Larrick, the Grizzlies again made some noise with Mayes picking up his second goal of the game at 10:25 to make the score 14-9.  Almost a minute later, Mayes netted his third goal of the game to bring the score back within four. The Mavericks, not to be deterred, made the score 15-10 with Pridham scoring his sixth goal at 8:09. Grizzlies goalie Chris Bucciarelli made a save off of a Solomon shot that resulted in a clear that helped Beedle net his fourth goal of the game off an assist by Stowell at 7:12 to make the score 15-11.
 
The last five minutes was a classic showdown between both teams as at 4:56, the Mavericks scored again with Dunn netting his third goal of the contest to make the score 16-11.  The Grizzlies answered back with Mayes and Peterman both firing off quick shots, and then coming together to see Peterman score his second goal with Mayes assisting at 3:32 to once again bring ASU to within four. Twenty seconds later, the Mavericks scored off a Solomon goal at 3:12, and then at 3:10 with a goal by O'Neill to make the score 18-12. With one last charge by the Grizzlies that saw the faceoff being won by a groundball pickup by Derek Bill, and a goal at 2:32 left to go in the game by Stowell off an assist by Peterman, the Grizzlies brought the score to 18-13. Unfortunately, with two quick goals scored by CMU's Dylan Duersky and Perkiel, Adams State fell 20-13.
 
"I think we beat ourselves.  We made some critical errors at key points in the game that cost us dearly on the scoreboard.  Though it was our first game as a group, new coaching staff, new philosophies, etc. and battling the weather being indoors for much of the last two weeks didn't help our cause, we can't make excuses.  We need to execute better on both sides of the ball."  Said head coach Jason Levesque
 
"While a loss is a loss any way you slice it, and we're certainly not happy with the result, I believe there are many positives we can take from this game.  In particular, the character and resolve our team showed today was great to see.  Our upperclassmen showed some tremendous leadership today and for any program to be successful, you need that.  Every time they'd bury a couple and pull away, we'd come right back and answer with a little run of our own.  Credit to Mesa, they're a great program and a talented team.  At the end of the day, we put ourselves in too big of a hole to climb out of and that's on us, but we kept competing and kept climbing.  For that, I'm extremely proud of the boys."
 
The Grizzlies take to the field next on March 11^th at 7 p.m. on the road at Colorado State Univeristy- Pueblo.