ALAMOSA, Colo. (April 6th, 2016)—The Adams State University Grizzlies men's lacrosse team took to the field earlier on Friday, as they hosted Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) leader, the Wesminster College Griffins at the ASU Lacrosse field. The Grizzlies were unable to maintain the momentum of last week's win over Notre Dame de Namur, as they fell 10-8 to Westminster.
The first quarter of play got started by the Griffins, as they drew the first blood of the match up at the 12:52 mark.
Seth Stowell put Adams State on the board with his goal with 9:05 remaining in the first, to tie the game up 1-1.
Stowell, off of an assist by
Drew Kerigan, would then net the Grizzlies' second goal of the game with 4:21 remaining in the quarter to give Adams State a 2-1 lead.
Reece Sullivan (assist Stowell) would then score his first of the game to give the Grizzlies a two-goal lead heading into the second quarter.
Westminster would get one of those goals back to cut Adams State's lead to 3-2, which would be the score heading into halftime of the contest.
Collin Cranfield would score his first of the game just over two minutes into the third quarter, to once again give the Grizzlies a two-goal lead at 4-2. Cranfield's goal was assisted by Sullivan.
However, the Griffins would quickly counteract that goal with one of their own, just twenty seconds after Cranfield found the net.
Sullivan would then go on to score his second goal of the game (assist
Taylor Wiggins) to give Adams State a 5-3 lead over Westminster, with
Emmitt MacFarlane (assist
Kage Janes) finding the back of the Griffins' net just minutes later to give the Grizzlies a 6-3 lead.
Before the end of the third quarter, Westminster would strike back with three goals of their own, to tie the game at 6-6 heading into the final quarter of play.
The start of the fourth quarter saw the Griffins score two more goals to take their second lead of the game, at 8-6.
Stowell, off of an assist by Morgan Osbourne, would then break Westminster's five-goal run to cut the lead back to one at 8-7.
Alex Brydson would then tie the game up with his goal with 7:16 remaining in the game.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough as the Griffins ended up netting two more goals to end the game.
"We blew a tremendous opportunity to really make some ground in the conference standings. It's unfortunate but it is what it is. As we continue to grow and develop as a program, I think we'll be able to look back upon this game and hopefully see it as a major lesson learned. We're still figuring out our identity in some respects, still learning how to win." Head Coach Jason Levesque said after the game.Connor Johnson faced 22 shots by the Griffins, and ended the day twelve saves. Adams State went 16-19 on clears and ended the day with twenty-six total shots.
"I'm proud of the overall work ethic our guys brought out today. Still some bad decisions and things we need to improve upon, but we played pretty hard. I was really pleased with our push back in the second half. After seeing our three goal lead turn into a two goal deficit, we got back up and tied things to give ourselves a chance to still pull out the win. Unfortunately, they had another push back of their own and we ran out of time towards the end. Give them credit, they're a great team and undefeated in conference play for a reason." added Levesque.
The Grizzlies take to the field again on Sunday, April 10
th as they host the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks in an RMAC match up. The game is set to begin at 1:00 pm, and live stats will be made available to fans by visiting
www.asugrizzlies.com.
