ALAMOSA, Colo. – After a bye week, the Adams State University Men's Lacrosse will return to action on Friday when they host the Westminster College Griffins and on Sunday when they travel to Grand Junction, Colo. to take on the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks.
The Grizzlies, who enter this weekend with a 1-5 overall record and 0-3 RMAC record, will open the charge this weekend here at the ASU Lacrosse Field on Friday against the Westminster College Griffins, who are 5-3 overall and 1-1 in the RMAC. Friday's game has been moved up from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. in an attempt to avoid the peak of what meteorologists are calling an extreme dangerous fire weather event with strong southerly/southwesterly winds of 25-35 miles per hour gusting as high as 60 miles per hour.
The Grizzlies have also been off for quite some time having last played on Apr. 10 at Westminster, when they were defeated, 23-2, in Salt Lake City. Adams State claimed their lone win by a 12-11 margin over Quincy on Mar. 23, but have been beaten by double-figure margins in their other five games to date.
Jacob Austin, the son of the Grizzlies' head coach
Jerome Austin, and
Kyle Coking are tied for the team lead with six goals and seven offensive points.
Ron Johnson and
Dawson Balabanoff also have three goals each for the Grizzlies, who have been out-scored by a combined by a 112-29 margin this season.
Mason Anderson scored two of the Grizzlies' four goals in the first match-up with Colorado Mesa, which the Mavericks won 21-4 on Mar. 5 in Alamosa.
Luke Meyers has taken a vast majority of the Grizzlies' face-offs and has won 58 of 128 (.453). He also leads the ground balls with 22.
Declan Larm has nine caused turnovers to lead the team and is second on the squad behind Meyers in ground balls with 14.
Brendan Williams has started five of ASU's six games in goal and has made 72 saves, good for a .439 save percentage. He has 18.15 goals against average.
Westminster, who enters the weekend with a 6-3 overall record and a 2-1 conference record, have not played since their last game with ASU. They are paced by Easton Albert, who has scored 16 goals.
The Mavericks, who are riding a season-best five-game winning streak and hold a 10-3 overall record and a 3-0 conference mark, will travel to Pueblo to take on the ThunderWolves before Friday's game against the Grizzlies at Community Hospitality Unity Field for their senior game at noon.
Although the Mavericks have only played half of their six scheduled RMAC games to date, they could clinch a share of the RMAC title as soon as Friday and control their own destiny to clinch at least a share this weekend.
If the Mavericks are able to win both of their games this week, they would clinch at least a share of the RMAC title, regardless of any other results. CMU could also clinch a share of the title with a Friday win over CSU Pueblo combined with a Westminster loss at Adams State that day.
The Mavericks return home from a trip to the Midwest with a pair of defensive wins over two different Hawk teams. The Mavericks defeated the Quincy University Hawks, 8-4, on Thursday in Quincy, Illinois before moving on to Kansas City, Missouri to claim a 10-5 road win over the Rockhurst University Hawks on Saturday.
The Mavericks are 25-0 all-time against Adams State since both institutions started their programs in 2011. CMU is 14-0 against the Grizzlies at home and won both of last year's two home games by a combined 45-8 margin, including the 23-3 regular season contest on Apr. 25 and the 22-5 RMAC Tournament semifinal win on May 7.
