The No. 23 University of Utah men’s lacrosse team added another victory to their rivalry with Westminster College, beating the Griffins by the score of 15-8 at Dumke Field in Salt Lake City.

Neither team scored in the first six minutes of the game while the offenses looked for openings and got a feel for the defensive sets being run by each team. At the 8:24 mark in the first quarter, Utah attackmen Mark Manning drove from the right side, shooting the ball past Westminster goalie Dallas McLellan to open the scoring. Both teams continued to play great defense until there were 42 seconds left in the quarter when Utah attackmen Zac Harris gave the Utes a two goal lead. Just 35 seconds later, Utah midfielder Mike Calvert scored on a man-up goal to give the Utes a 3 goal lead after the first quarter.

Westminster (5-3,1-0), who is ranked No. 4 in the Division-II polls, netted their first goal at the 12:30 mark in the second quarter. Westminster was man-up which caused the Utah defense to get confused, allowing Griffin attackmen Josh Condas, who was left wide open on the left side of the crease, score an easy goal. Utah scored one more goal before allowing Westminster to get two goals and end the half with the Utes leading, 4-3.

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My Thoughts:
I thought the Utes played really well. Westminster made a lot of mental errors and didn’t work as hard. When Nick Merrell went down late in the game, you could tell it was bad. The whole team felt for him. The Utes are carrying a lot of momentum into their Colorado road trip. It will be interesting to see how well they play.