Box Score
The Colorado Mesa University Men's lacrosse team took on the Lindenwood University Lions on Thursday as the Mavericks begin to wrap up their second season in NCAA D-II lacrosse. It was a rough day for the Mavs (7-4, 5-2 WILA) as the loss was their second in conference, dropping them into a tie for first in the Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association with the Dominican University Penguins.
The Mavs were able to strike first in the match after a goal from Austin Pridham coming at 11:33 put the Mavs up 1-0 early in the game. The Lions would respond with a goal of their own at 10:13 to tie the score at 1-1 and would pull ahead with another goal at 6:43 to make the score 2-1. The Mavs would fight back however, as a goal from Daniel Caddoo coming at 4:23 would leave the score knotted up at 2-2 through the end of the first quarter. The second quarter saw neither team hitting the back of the net as both teams racked up 5 shots apiece, although none of the Mavs' shots were on goal, and the score was left at 2-2 at the break.
The scoring drought would continue deep into the third quarter as the Mavs were only able to get off 3 shots, but again nothing was on target, and the Lions racked up 10 shots, 4 of which were on goal; the Lions finally ended the drought with 9 seconds left in the quarter with a goal that put them up 3-2 heading into the final period. The Mavs would not go quietly as they finally ended their drought with 6:13 left with Caddoo's second goal of the game to tie the score at 3-3. The Lions were able to keep the pressure on, thought, as they struck again after only 24 seconds of game time ticked away to go up once again 4-3 with 5:49 remaining in the game. Caddoo single handedly kept the Mavs in the game as he notched his third goal of the game with 1:44 remaining to keep the game dead even 4-4. The game would end in disappointment for the Mavs, though, as the Lions dealt the killing blow with a mere 35 seconds remaining in the game to make the score 5-4 final and dropping the Mavs into a tie for first in the WILA.
Caddoo led all scorers in the game with 3 goals on 3 shots while also adding 3 groundballs; Pridham ended the game with 1 goal on 2 shots with 1 groundball and 2 caused turnovers. James Sharp and Kade Robinson also contributed to the offensive effort as Sharp finished with 2 assists and 1 groundball and Robinson finished with 1 assist.
Brad Brandenburg spent the entire game in the net as he got the decision for the Mavs while racking up 10 saves.
The tiebreaker scenarios currently favor the Mavericks as the 1st tiebreaker is head-to-head matchups between the teams and the Penguins and Mavs split the season series with both teams winning their respective home contest. The 2nd tiebreaker is lowest goals against average in conference games which currently favors the Mavericks as they have only given up 37 goals in 7 conference games for an average of 5.29 goals per game; the Penguins have given up 53 goals in 7 conference games for an average of 7.57 goals per game.
The Mavericks continue their season on Saturday when they get a break from conference games and will instead take on the Shorter University Hawks at a neutral site game in St. Charles, Missouri.
