“Colorado Shocks 3 Simon Fraser”
Nick Salen; Public Relations, CU Lacrosse
Boulder, CO (Mar 7, 2010) Although the Olympics are over, Sunday night witnessed
another meeting between the United States and Canada, only not so much
ice. Head coach Pete Stevenson earned
his first regular season victory with CU as the Buffaloes upset 3rd
ranked Simon Fraser (MCLA Magazine) by a final score of 17-7.
“Winning
is so hard to do at this level and to get that first one means a lot”,
Stevenson commented after the game. “I am glad that this team responded
tonight.”
Indeed
the team responded all night, AJ Blackburn led the Buffaloes’ triumph with 6
goals and 2 assists. Freshman Doug
Lilburne followed closely behind with 4 tallies of his own. Darren Hulick also found the net with 2, alongside single goals from Ryan Haines, Nick Kupcewicz, Ben Litwak, Tyler Snyder and Matt White. Offensively CU pummeled the Simon Fraser
defense with 45 shots, consistent pressure working around the net and
capitalizing on gaps between the poles.
Stevenson
would later add though that his defense deserves the credit for the win. “As a
unit they were practically unbeatable tonight. Will Brown played huge for us in
the goal as well. “Defensively, the Buffs constrained the Clansmen offense
most of the game, only giving up 11 shots in the first half alone. Simon Fraser would go on to get 30 total
shots in the contest, 16 of which came in the 4th when Colorado sat
most of their starters.
Will
Brown played the majority of the night stopping 9 shots on goal and a .692 save
percentage before being relieved by Cody Novack and later Bradley Macnee. Brown
at the moment has 21 saves and averages 6.5 goals against with a .618 save
percentage overall in 2 games as CU’s starting goalie.
With
the win, Colorado improves to 1-1 and currently sits 5th in the RMLC
division behind Utah(3-0), Utah State(3-0), CSU(4-1) and BYU(3-2). The team will travel to Missouri next week to
play back-to-back games against 17th ranked Lindenwood and Miami
(FL) on March 12 and 13 respectively.
Until then, the entire upcoming week of practice will be training to
counter the Lions’ and Hurricanes’ tactics.