The Colorado College men’s lacrosse team (11-4) defeated their biggest rival, the Whittier College Poets, for the second week in a row. CC won the game with a final score of 13-9.
The win secured the Locker-Stabler cup for the Tigers for another year. The Locker-Stabler Cup honors CC’s Doc Stabler and Whittier’s Doug Locker for bringing DIII lacrosse to the West. Since Whittier and CC are the only DIII teams in the West, the owner of the trophy is truly the best in the West. CC is 6-0 in cup games since the traveling trophy’s institution in 2011.
“Our guys know all about the history between Colorado College and Whittier, even before the Locker-Stabler Cup,” said Head Coach Sean Woods. “Playing this game at home in front of our alumni gives our guys a lot of extra incentive.”
The back-to-back victories were crucial for the independent CC, who has been striving all season for a bid to the NCAA tournament.
“Any time you beat your rival it is great, doing it twice is even better, doing it twice within seven days is special,” said sophomore attackman Robbie Stern. “Whittier is a good team, hopefully they make the NCAA Tournament. It was a special weekend for our program and we are very grateful to pick up another win.”
The Poets were eager to show their strength and scored within the first minute of play, but it was their only lead of the game. The Tigers were not deterred. Goals from Stern, senior midfielder Eric Neumeyer, and first-year midfielder Tom Haller gave the Tigers a comfortable 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
CC’s offense exploded in the second quarter. Junior midfielder Austin Davie’s first tally 1:36 into the second quarter made the score 4-1. After a rebuttal from Whittier’s Matt Symes, Davie and Neumeyer came together with two assists from first-year midfielder Drew Wiseman to end the half with a dominant 8-2 lead.
“Austin has been doing that all year long,” Woods said. “Our guys know that if they do their job when he has the ball, something great will happen. Austin scores clutch goals, and he was clutch in the second quarter tonight.”
The Tigers kept firm control of the game in the second half, extending their lead to 12-5 at the end of the third quarter. Rivalries, however, are made out of close games, and Whittier made a run in the fourth quarter, outscoring CC 4-1. Fortunately for CC, it was too little too late and the game ended with a final score of 13-9.
“It feels pretty good to retain possession of the cup this year, especially being a freshman and being able to continue the tradition of winning the cup that the classes before me have created,” said Haller. “I think winning it had a separate meaning this year for all the guys on our team that were sidelined due to injury. I know they would have done anything to be out on the field with us and it was great to be able to bring home the cup for those guys especially.”
Senior goalie Chase Murphy made 12 saves, marking the 31st time in his career he stopped double-digit shots. CC’s senior goaltender improved to 6-0 all-time against the Poets.
The bracket decisions for the NCAA tournament will be released this Sunday. This is the moment the CC men’s lacrosse team has been working for all year.
“Playing in the NCAA Tournament is a tremendous opportunity. That being said, nobody is satisfied with simply making the tournament,” said Stern. “We have been gearing up for this since the Endicott loss last year. We have taken a few days to get ourselves healthy after a long season. There are a few things we need to clean up in practice, and we will watch a lot of film from the regular season, but we are really just focused on continuing to improve every day. We will start to really focus on the tourney when the bracket drops on Sunday.”