Nick Salen; Public Relations, CU Lacrosse

The 11^th seeded University of Colorado pulled off another upset early Wednesday morning knocking off number 6 Oregon in a thrilling overtime victory in the first round of the MCLA Tournament.  CU will face third seeded Arizona State Thursday for a chance to return to the Final Four. 

Like many of CU’s games late in the season, the Buffs opened the scoring early, this time courtesy of attackman Doug Lilburne firing one past Oregon’s Nick Johnston just 16 seconds into the quarter.  It would remain that way until the Ducks’ Justin Eckenroad responded at 11:26 to tie.  Colorado would break the tie seven minutes later when Darren Hulick found twine off a feed by Tyler Snyder, only to be answered just over a minute later by Lilburne for his second of the game to send the Buffaloes up by two.  Oregon would not take the deficit sitting down, and quickly rallied netting two late goals of their own thanks in part to middys Corbin Root and Kevin Clark to tie the game again at three all at the end of the first.  The second quarter would show a deadlock between the two teams aside from an early goal by the Ducks to take a 4-3 lead.  CU struggled to get around Oregon’s ride and find little opportunity to put the pressure on the Ducks’ defense.  In retrospect, Oregon found troubles of their own being stonewalled by goaltender Brad Macnee on several occasions in the quarter.  The sense going in at halftime was that this game could turn out to be one of the highlight games of the Tournament should the second half be as much a deadlock as the first.

Lilburne would find the net once again in the early seconds of the third quarter, earning the hat trick and bringing the Buffs into the third tie of the game.  It would be short lived however, as Oregon long pole Stephen Brizie would go the distance to regain the lead, echoed moments later by attackman Justin Blackmore.  Down by two, the Buffaloes quickly rallied to get within one at 10:21 by James Blackburn only to be neutralized late in the quarter by the Ducks’ Corbin Root bringing the score to 7-5 Oregon heading into the final fifteen minutes.

In the fourth, Oregon added to their lead early by another coast to coast score by a long pole, this time by Mike Gerrard to make it 8-5.  Colorado immediately had to rally, and that they did. They began to show signs of finally working around Oregon’s persistent riding and in turn capitalized off opportunities. Mid way through the quarter Darren Hulick would score by a feed from Mike Britt.  Nick Kupcewicz would score with 5L15 left to play to make it a one goal game, and just under a minute later Blackburn would earn his second of the contest to tie the game and force sudden death overtime. 

The CU magic would come to life yet again, starting off by a huge save from Macnee after the Ducks won the faceoff.  The save set up the quick outlet pass to midfielder Aaron Gray who in turn drew the defender to find Hulick for a game winning crank shot.

With the win, Colorado advances to the quarter-finals of the MCLA Tournament and will face Arizona State Thursday.  Should the Buffaloes win, they will find themselves in familiar waters, returning to where they left off just one year ago, an appearance in the Final Four.

Notes:

Mike Ryder on the game:  “We came out playing well, scoring on our first possession of the game. But Oregon battled back. We had a few goals to put us up, but Oregon's ride kept getting us into trouble. A few decent shots by Oregon and the lead went from 3-1 to being down 4-3 around halftime. We came out ready to go in the second half, but ground balls, penalties and shot backups were all going to the Ducks. We were down 8-5 after two of their defensemen went the distance and scored, so we knew we needed a great fourth to even have a chance.”

Ryder on the victory: “This win against Oregon is just another in a string of huge victories for the buffs this season. It proved to the country that we not only belong in this tournament but we are a force to be reckoned with. Now we have to ride the wave and keep playing like a team, that’s the only way we have a chance at moving on. The Buffs are back and want nothing less than to win in our own back yard”