Westminster 22, Colorado School of Mines 5
Salt Lake City, Utah (May 2, 2008) – The No. 1 seeded Westminster Griffins (12-3) advanced to the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference Division II finals with a convincing win over the No. 2 seed, Colorado School of Mines (7-5), by the score of 22-5.
The host Griffins controlled the pace of the game from the beginning, scoring the first five goals of the game and taking a huge lead that they would never give up.
The Colorado School of Mines started the second quarter well, scoring two goals within the first minute and a half of the quarter. The Westminster defense began to apply more pressure and only allowed three more goals the entire game.
The Westminster offense continued to roll, scoring 17 more goals en route to victory. Midfielder and captain, James Brand, scored seven times while attackmen, Jake Barnes, found the back of the net five times and had one assist. Eight other Griffins found places on the score sheet.
Westminster will face Fort Lewis at Westminster College in Salt Lake City in the RMLC Division II Championship game. The game will start at 2 pm on Saturday.
Both teams scored more than 20 goals in their semifinal games. The final game will no doubt see either tough defense or potent offense. The last time these two teams met, Westminster came away with a 14-7 victory.
Fort Lewis 24, Montana State 12
Salt Lake City, Utah (May 2, 2008) – The No. 2 seed from the Western Conference, Fort Lewis (13-3), advanced to the RMLC Division II championship game after doubling up the No. 1 seed from the East, Montana State (7-3), 24-12, in the first semifinal contest of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference Division II playoffs.
Montana State (7-3) opened the scoring just 50 seconds into the game on a goal by midfielder Andrew Herald.
Fort Lewis answered back with a goal by attackmen Chad Murphy with 12:57 left in the first quarter. Montana State score a minute and a half later on a man-up goal by attackmen, Patrick Hoy, to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.
Both teams played hard and fought for possession which was equal throughout the first quarter. Fort Lewis managed to go take a one goal lead into the second quarter, 4-3.
Montana State started off the second quarter with a goal 30 seconds into the quarter to tie the game at 4. Fort Lewis then went on a six goal scoring streak to take 10-4 lead with seven and a half minutes left in the second quarter.
Fort Lewis dominated play for the rest of the half, taking a big 14-6 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was dominated by defense as only six goals were scored, four by Fort Lewis and two by Montana State to end the quarter, 18-8, in favor of Fort Lewis.
Fort Lewis continued to pressure the Montana State defense and managed to score six goals in the fourth quarter. Montana State wouldn’t give up and continued to play hard until the final whistle, scoring four goals in the final quarter.
The FLC Skyhawks were led by RMLC 1st team attackmen Erik Johnson who had six goals and seven assists. Murphy, also an RMLC 1st team attackmen, had eight goals and two assists while attackmen, Tyler Pousson, had four goals and two assists.
“Ya know, I thought we played well offensively,” said Fort Lewis Head Coach John Robinette. “I think we let in too many goals defensively, but our big time players stepped up when they needed to.”
Fort Lewis will play Westminster for the RMLC Division 2 title on Saturday afternoon. Face-off will be at 2 pm.
Originally posted on CollegeLAX.us on May 3, 2008.
