Last weekend, Colorado College’s men’s lacrosse team won in their home opener against Adams State University. Coincidentally, the Tigers have scored 14 points in each of their three wins.
“We’re feeling pretty confident. This past weekend I was really happy with the way we started. I thought we came out really fast, which is important in our sport to make sure we develop momentum early,” said Head Coach Sean Woods. “Any time you can develop a five, six, seven, eight or whatever goal lead early in the game, it creates doubt in your opponent.”
CC came out strong in the first quarter. Freshman midfielder Tyler Borko put CC on the board first. Borko led the team in goals, scoring five. Next up was sophomore attackman Robert Stern with an unassisted goal. Finishing off CC’s early lead was junior attackman Austin Davie.
“We are a very young team offensively, and guys like Tyler are going to be a huge part to our success,” said Davie. “The freshmen are all extremely talented and athletic, it’s awesome to watch them have such significant roles in their first years.”
Adams State finally got their first goal, narrowing the deficit to 3-1. That was the closest Adams State would get for the rest of the game.
Three more goals by freshman midfielders Tom Haller, Borko, and Aaron Maslow doubled CC’s score. Adams State scored once more before Borko came back with just eight seconds left for his third goal The first quarter ended 7-2.
“Being able to play in front of the home crowd and play where we put in a lot of hard work every day in practice is a big confidence booster, and you always have that extra chip on your shoulder when defending your home turf,” said Borko.
The second quarter was near identical to the first, with Stern, Borko, and Davie scoring before Adams State even managed to land one. However, Adams State closed out the scoring in the second quarter, ending 4-10.
Borko opened the scoring in the third period. But this time Adams State came right back with a goal of their own. Davie then scored twice in a row, netting a total of four goals for the third game in a row. After Davie’s two goals, the Grizzlies scored, bringing the score to 6-13.
“We have some great leaders on the team,” said Borko. “[They] do a great job of pushing us to work hard every day…we are good at finding the openings in the other team’s schemes and exploiting them.”
Stern closed out the scoring for the Tigers. Stern’s three total goals is a career-high.
Despite the large deficit, Adams State never gave up. They ended the game with one last goal, leaving the final score 7-14. CC significantly outshot Adams State, 51-26.
“Our advantage in shots against Adams State honestly says more about our defense,” said Davie. “Our defense is full of veterans who know what it takes to compete at this level and win and they keep the ball in our hands. Our offense is starting to click now and so the more the defense can dominate, the more time we have to settle in on the offensive end.”
Woods attributes the shots advantage to the team’s unselfish nature. “We shared the ball pretty well, in the first half especially,” said Woods.
The Tigers go up against Augustana College this Saturday.
“Augustana is a quality opponent,” said Woods. “They’re independent like we are so it’s important that we win those head to heads against the independent teams that we have scheduled such as Augustana, Carthage, and Whittier. Those are our biggest foes within the independent pool.”
Of the 35 independent schools in the nation, three will get bids to the playoffs. CC wants to be one, and with a season start like this, things are looking good for the Tigers.