SAN RAFAEL, Calif.— The nation's 17^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team never trailed in a key 13-8 season-opening and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win over the Concordia University Irvine Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon.

The neutral-site game, played here at Dominican University's Kennelly Field was a rematch of last year's RMAC Tournament Championship game that the Mavericks won in overtime, 13-12.

In Saturday's win, redshirt sophomore Connor Jensen scored a career-high four goals to lead the Maverick attack.  Carson Points also added a hat trick while Erich Petersen and Dillon Pless scored two goals apiece.

Meanwhile, Maverick newcomer goalie Shaden Shields made 18 saves in his CMU debut after transferring from American International College.  That total is the best for any Maverick net-minder since 2018 and the fifth-highest total in program history.  Shields made 13 of his stops in the first half, allowing the Mavs to cling to a 5-4 lead at the break.

The Mavs led for the final 36:54 of Saturday's game when Points scored back-to-back goals just 62 seconds apart to give the Mavs a 4-2 lead after CUI had equalized at 1-1 and 2-2.

The Golden Eagles would pull within a single goal at 5-4 and 6-5 with 13:05 left in the third quarter but never got any closer as a 7-2 run in the second half helped the Mavs put the game away.
Jensen, who redshirted in 2024, was playing in his first game in over 21 months and tallied four of his goals in the second half.

Despite, the win, the Mavs were slightly disadvantaged in many of the team statistics.  The Golden Eagles had a 40-39 advantage in shots and a 36-27 edge in ground balls.  They also won 17 of the 25 face-offs as returning First Team All-RMAC faceoff specialist Cade Poe won 14 of his 20 draws.

However, the Golden Eagles scored just one man-up goal on five Maverick penalties while the Mavericks tallied the opening goal of the game while short-handed thanks to Logan Smith.

The Mavs also took advantage of their lone extra-man opportunity to go up 5-3 through Pless on a feed from preseason all-American JJ Brummett, who had three points with a goal and two assists.
Ethan Points also had a nice game with three assists.

Caden Hathaway and Deuce Kirschke led the Maverick defensive unit as both of them recorded three groundballs and a pair of caused turnovers.

The Mavs will remain in California to play the host Dominican Penguins on Monday afternoon at noon PST (1 p.m. Mountain).