DURANGO – A beautiful Saturday afternoon greeted the players as the Fort Lewis men’s lacrosse team celebrated Senior Day at the Smith Complex before taking on #14 Northern Arizona University.
Seven seniors made their last regular season appearance as Skyhawks and they played up to the occasion. Unfortunately, it was not enough as Northern Arizona scored with 20 seconds left to steal an 8-7 win over Fort Lewis.
The Skyhawks got on the board first as senior Nick Wallen scored off an Ian Bragdon assist. Scott Dimmitt followed that up with another shortly after to put the Skyhawks up 2-0. NAU would get one in transition to pull within one after the first quarter. The Lumberjacks would score two in the second quarter as the teams went into halftime tied at 3-3.
Then the game got interesting.
Northern Arizona scored four quick goals coming out of the half to take a commanding 7-3 lead and forcing the Skyhawks bench to take a time out. Jacob Boyle promptly scored to stop the Lumberjack momentum and bring the score to 7-4 after three quarters.
Like the week before, the Skyhawks proved that they can finish strong. Defenseman Corey Henricksen got things started blasting a shot past the NAU goaltender to bring the team within two goals. Senior James Rott, playing on a torn ACL, scored twice in the final quarter to tie the game with 5 minutes left.
After the Skyhawks failed to score on a two man advantage, NAU got possession with under a minute remaining. Facing a zone defense that had shut down the NAU offense for most of the second half, Lumberjack attackman Adam Zimmerman came around X and scored with just 20 seconds remaining to break the tie.
The Skyhawks had a chance in the end but Jacob Boyle’s shot was saved by the NAU goaltender to seal the win.
Despite the loss, the Skyhawks will travel to Boulder for the RMLC Conference Championship Tournament, finishing the regular season 4-5 and 4-1 in conference action.
The Skyhawks will face off against #13 Montana State on Friday April 28th on the campus of Colorado-Boulder in the first round of the conference tournament.
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