GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (May 6th, 2016)— The Adams State University Grizzlies men's lacrosse team traveled to Grand Junction to compete in their first ever Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Championships earlier Friday. Despite putting up a good fight, the Grizzlies fell to the No. 1 ranked host team, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks 9-6.
"Really proud of the effort and compete level tonight. Not the result we were looking for, but every guy on our roster bought into the game plan and played hard tonight. As a coaching staff, we can't ask for much more than that." head coach
Jason Levesque said after the game. "I think Mesa's experience won out over our young group but we saw plenty of great things to build upon moving forward. Our guys played hard start to finish with a great program that has been ranked and or receiving votes in the top 20 poll throughout both this season and last. Mesa has been the class and standard of Division II lacrosse in the west for the last handful of years. I think we're closing that gap and with the experience gained not only tonight but throughout this past season, we're going to get over that next hurdle sooner rather than later."
The opening period of the game saw the Mavericks take an early 1-0 lead over Adams State at the 13:33 mark, but
Emmitt MacFarlane (assisted by
Morgan Osborne) would tie the game up with his goal at the 11:50 mark.
With 7:35 left in the first period, CMU would once again take a one-goal lead, before going up 3-1 over the Grizzlies to end the opening stanza.
The second period saw the Mavericks add two more goals to their lead, to take a 5-1 lead over Adams State, but
Daniel Krieble would get that one back for the Grizzlies with his goal (unassisted) with 7:41 left in the quarter. Krieble's goal would bring the score to 2-5 heading into halftime.
Collin Cranfield would draw the first blood of the second half with his goal at the 12:07 mark of the third. Cranfield's goal would cut the deficit down to two goals. However, Colorado Mesa would counteract that goal with one of their own to go up by three, at 6-3.
The Mavericks would then add one more goal to go up 7-3 over Adams State, before Cranfield would net his second goal of the contest to cut CMU's lead down to 7-4, with 10:19 left to go.
With 7:42 remaining,
Seth Stowell (assisted by Krieble) would score his first goal of the game, to cut the lead down to 7-5.
Colorado Mesa would then score back-to-back goals to go up 9-5 over Adams State, but MacFarlane would net the last goal of the game.
Overall, the Grizzlies ended the day with thirty-five shots. The RMAC Freshman of the Year,
Connor Johnson, wrapped up his freshman campaign with thirteen saves. MacFarlane and Cranfield led Adams State with two goals a piece.
