Lacrosse sweeps at home
In its first home games of the spring season, the Utah State lacrosse team notched victories over Montana State and UVSC Friday and Saturday, improving to 7-2 on the year.
After seeing two games cancelled due to weather last week in Colorado, the Aggies took the field for the first time in three weeks Friday against MSU. A game the Ags won easily 20-4.
“It was a good game for us,” Aggie head Coach Eddie Vega said. “The guys came out and did a good job of coming out and doing the stuff we’ve been working on the past three weeks.”
Led by six goals and three assists from Kyle Fiat, the Ags controlled play for most of the game.
“The guys are moving well off the ball and keeping their eyes open,” Vega said, “and just knowing what’s going on around them.”
In all, nine Aggie players notched points on the day. Attackman Hans Winkler provided four goals and one assist and Evan Nitchman added three goals and three assists.
On the defensive side of the field, players said they had less impressive games.
“There wasn’t a lot offensive production from the other team,” defensman Matt Polityka said. “We kind of stood around a lot today.”
Vega said Montana state’s inexperience played a major role in the Aggies’ easy win.
“They’re a new team in the league and they played as hard as they could,” Vega said. “We got a lot of ground balls. Defense played well. Most importantly we were passing and catching. It’s easy to run your offense when your passing and catching.”
Near the game’s end Vega said the team started to get tired and play became sloppy, but overall he was pleased with the performance.
“We started playing down to their level,” Polityka said.
Against UVSC on Saturday the Aggies were matched up against stiffer competetion but still emerged on top, 11-9.
“UVSC is always a big game,” Fiat said. “It’s kind of turned into a rivalry.”
The Aggies were flat to start the game and the Wolverines capitalized, jumping out to a 4-0 lead.
A USU goal in the waning seconds of the first quarter closed the gap to three. With some momentum on their side, the Ags rallied to take the lead at 6-5 and never looked back.
Winkler led the way with three goals and two assists, while Fiat and Nitchman added four points apiece.
Utah State now travels to Colorado for games against Colorado and Colorado State April 16 and 18.
-acf@cc.usu.edu
Lacrosse player James Coburn fights for a groundball during Friday´s game against Montana State. (Photo by John Zsiray)