March 29, 2010
Fort Lax travelled to Orem Utah this past weekend for games against Utah Valley and Northern Colorado.
Shortly before game time against UVU on Friday, a vicious storm front swept in over Lake Utah and collided with the Wasatch Mountains. The game venue was switched from UVU to BYU to get off the wet grass and onto a turf field. As the game progressed snow squalls would periodically hit the field driving fat snow flakes horizontally.
Coming off a 3 game winning streak against teams in California, the Hawks were psyched to play the Wolverines, ranked in the top 5 nationally. The game started with a fast pace with goals being traded between the two teams. Mid-way into the first half, the Wolverines were able to go up by 4. After a time-out, the Hawks re-focused and put in 3 goals in less than 2 minutes to pull within 1. UVU came back with a barrage of shots and were able to end the half up by 3.
As lacrosse is a game of streaks, FLC felt like we were right in the game. However, UVU came out of the half charged up and were able to keep chipping away at the FLC defense putting the ball in the net consistently. By the end of the 3rd quarter, the extra numbers on UVU’s team were able to outrun the Hawks taking firm control of the game. The final score was UVU 19 and FLC 10.
Saturday was an off-day for the Hawks, so the players were able to relax, recover, and watch a spirited game between UVU and Northern Colorado. Even though the game was relatively close, UVU had the better team and took the win.
On Sunday, the Hawks faced off against nationally ranked Northern Colorado with clear skies, mild temperature and perfect lacrosse weather. Our game plan called for the defense to shut down Colorado’s crease attack game and put tough pressure on their feeders. We felt that if we could control their offense, our offense could put up enough goals to win. During the first half, the Hawk’s D stood tough, virtually shutting down Colorado’s inside offensive game. On the other end of the field, FLC’s offense, which has always put up great numbers, just wasn’t clicking. Lots of missed passes, dropped balls, and poor shot choices combined so that the Hawk offense put up a paltry 4 goals for the entire game.
The frustration mounted through the second half, as Colorado began controlling the transition game, putting tough pressure on the Hawk’s D. The final score of 14-4 was difficult to take as we felt that this should have been a close and exciting game.
We now enter the more enjoyable part of our schedule with a home game (finally) against Regis this Saturday.
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