The Utah men’s lacrosse team was in action on Wednesday, hosting No. 15 UC-Santa Barbara at the Spence Eccles Field House at the University of Utah.

Utah (4-4, 1-1) began the game fired up and ready to play which helped them take an early lead. Three minutes into the first quarter, senior midfielder Jon Owens found the back of the net for Utah which fired up the Utah sideline. A minute and a half later, Utah was clearing the ball and senior midfielder Matt Qualey caught a pass from the defense at midfield, took it up the right sideline and shot it right past USCB goalie Zack Carson to give Utah a two goal lead.

UCSB wouldn’t let Utah gain anymore momentum by holding the Utes scoreless for the rest of the first quarter and all of the second quarter. The Utah defense couldn’t stop the quick Gaucho transitions and let UCSB go on a 8-0 run to end the first half of play.

Carson and Utah goalie Andrew Martinelli made several saves in the second half  which proved to be a defensive battle as the Gauchos notched four goals and Utah scored one to end the game with the score of 12-3 in favor of UCSB.

“I thought we came out hard with a lot of energy and we did some nice things,” said Utah head coach Craig Morris. “It was one of those days where every mistake we made they seemed to capitalize on and they did a really nice job of that. We had some nice chances in the second half but just didn’t put them in.”

UCSB was led by sophomore midfielder Ethan Mantel who notched four goals. Utah was led by Owens who had two goals.

Utah will face Fort Lewis on Sunday in Salt Lake City. UCSB (5-4, 1-0) will face conference foe Claremont on April 4 in Claremont, California.

Photos courtesy of Haslam Photography