ALAMOSA, Colo. (April 10^th, 2017) --- The Adams State men's lacrosse team split the weekend on the road, winning at Maryville on Friday afternoon 11-5, and losing to Rockhurst on Sunday by a narrow 11-8 margin.
 
Hoping to climb up in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Standings, the Grizzlies went into Maryville (0-10, 0-7 RMAC) focused. Adams State (5-3, 4-2 RMAC) had previously beaten the Saints 10-4 in Alamosa on March 15^th. Tanner Beck and Michael Vaeth would open things up for ASU with a pair of unassisted goals. The Saints would then score one of their own, but were quickly turned away by Tanner Beck's fourth goal of the year, followed by Morgan Osborne's third and fourth of the season. Maryville would score one more in the closing seconds of the first quarter to make the score 5-2 at the end of one. Morgan Osborne and Nik Clinton provided the only goals in the second, pushing the Grizzly lead to 7-2 at halftime. The third also belonged to Adams State by a 2-1 margin. Sloan Wiggins opened the fourth with two goals in less than two minutes to give the Grizzlies a commanding 11-3 lead. The Saints would rally for two more in the closing 12 minutes, but it was too little, too late as Adams State cruised to their 5^th win (4^th RMAC) of the year.
 
Tanner Beck had three goals, five ground balls, and one caused turnover on the day. Sloan Wiggins also played a key role with two goals, one assist, two ground balls, and one caused turnover. Division II's leader in saves per game, Connor Johnson, also added 15 to his total. The Grizzlies forced 18 turnovers and scooped up 37 ground balls.
 
Sunday's showdown with the RMAC's second place team looked like a blow out early, but the resiliency of the Grizzlies (5-4, 4-3 RMAC) nearly flipped the script late. Kale Wilson was the only Grizzly to score in the Hawk's 5-1 run in the first half. Rockhurst (11-3, 6-3 RMAC) opened up the third with another goal to increase their lead to 6-1. Morgan Osborne then assisted Michael Vaeth with his seventh goal of the season to cut into the lead. The Hawks would then answer with two more of their own. Vaeth then scored again, only to be countered with another two Rockhurst goals. Trailing 10-3 early in the fourth, Adams State mustered everything they had to come back. Tanner Beck scored with an assist from Kale Wilson. Seven seconds later, Danny Krieble hit a goal for ASU. The Hawks would answer two minutes later to make it an 11-5 game. Tanner Beck, Danny Krieble, and Emmitt MacFarlane would lead a three goal run to make it a three goal game. Unfortunately, MacFarlane's goal came with only 40 seconds left and the clock would not allow Adams State to complete the comeback.
 
Michael Vaeth, Tanner Beck, and Danny Krieble all scored two goals each for the Grizzlies. Joe Quatrochi picked up a team-high seven ground balls on the day. Connor Johnson had lower stats than usual, but still managed 10 saves. Jake Martin had four goals on eight shots for Rockhurst. The Hawks narrowly out-shot the Grizzlies 40-38. ASU won the ground ball battle 32-31 and dominated the faceoff 15-8.
 
The 1-1 weekend keeps Adams State in third place in the RMAC standings.
 
The team now heads to Westminster on April 21^st for a rematch of the Grizzlies' most exciting game of the season. ASU won the April 2^nd meeting 11-10 in overtime.   
 
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