It Stops at 49; Buffaloes
Shock Undefeated Michigan
Nick Salen; Public
Relations, CU Lacrosse
BOULDER, CO (April 9, 2010)- If you have ever talked about a
turnaround point in a season, Friday night’s matchup is a perfect example. No.
22 Colorado shocked the MCLA and the lacrosse nation Friday night defeating the
previously undefeated No. 1 Michigan Wolverines by a final of 12-10. The Buffaloes halt a 4 game losing skid and
deny the Wolverines their 50th win in a row. As a coach, Mike Ryder was nothing less than
ecstatic after the contest, claiming his first victory as Colorado’s head coach
in such dramatic fashion.
“Its what weve been saying since Day 1 of the new regime,
paying attention to detail and today we did that. We paid attention to groundballs;
we paid attention to holding onto the ball. We beat the Ten-Man Ride that’s
supposed to be unbeatable, and it’s just a great win to start off on a new
foot. Last week was tough for us but we
are a new Buffs team now, and just great to start off with this win.”
CU startled the field and possibly the benches early in the
first quarter at Kittredge Field as AJ Blackburn opened up the scoring just
1:12 into the game. The goal was set up by Darren Hulick and established CU’s
permanent lead throughout the game. Colorado would add on to their lead with
tallies by Hulick, Colin Rosenblum and another by Blackburn while Michigan’s
Clark McIntyre got the teams only point of the quarter.
In the second quarter Michigan’s dynamic duo of Kevin
Zorovich and Trevor Yealy got passed Cu’s Brad MacNee to levy the gap, only to
be neutralized by two more from Colorado by Rosenblum and a buzzer beater by
Kyle Driver to send the Buffs up by 6-3 going into the half.
The Buffs increased their lead with five more goals in the
third compared to Michigan’s two. Going
into the fourth, the Buffaloes felt a sense of astonishment, fifteen minutes
from the unthinkable. The Wolverines
however knew that they were down but certainly not out and began to mount a
comeback of epic proportions.
Michigan held Colorado to one early goal all quarter, the
rest of the time showed the Wolverine team that the MCLA knew all too well,
dominating the groundball game and maintaining the majority of possession in
the Buffaloes defensive zone. The Blue
were outshooting the Buffs 16-6 and began to wear down Colorado’s long poles,
finding weaknesses and capitalizing on mistakes. During the timeouts late in the fourth, it was
coach Ryder and goaltender Brad MacNee that lead the revamping of the Buffs,
telling the defense and the team to “just finish.”
“We knew we had the game up”, MacNee stated, “we also knew
that it could go away in a second. We kept it tight, they got a few quick ones
in, but we stayed calm and came out on top and held it until the last second.”
Michigan kept the pressure on intensely, pressing outside
the box on every pass attempt by CU, just to get another chance at shooting and
narrowing the lead ever so closer. But
as MacNee said, the defense held tight and Brad made the saves that counted.
Colorado had lost all the momentum in the waning minutes of
the fourth as Michigan felt they could also pull off the improbable, as Ryder
described it, “it definitely wasn’t over until it read 0:00 on that clock.”
When the final horn blared through the air, the scene was
indescribable. The unfathomable had happened,
a team highlighted by a rollercoaster year had pulled off one of the greatest
upsets in the MCLA’s history. The best
way to put it, David vs Goliath.
“The MCLA is a great league”, Ryder further commented. “A lot of tough competition and Michigan has
played in a lot of close games. No one
thought we were going to win this one coming in, they thought we were going to
be number 50. But it’s one thing I told these guys, we got to end this streak
today on our field. We just couldn’t afford to lose anymore on this turf. And this is going to be a turning point for
the rest of this program’s season. “
The burning question that has loomed over Boulder could
finally be answered in a positive fashion;
Can CU turn around their season?
With the win tonight Colorado is a giant step closer to saying “Yes.”
But the celebration will be short lived this weekend, as Minnesota-Duluth still
awaits a crack at revenge Sunday morning.
Until then, Colorado shall embrace what hasn’t been done since 2007, tallying
a mark in Michigan’s loss column.
NOTES: