Successful road trip gives USU Lacrosse four top 15 wins

Midway through their spring 2022 season, Utah State Men’s lacrosse team is 5-3 on the season. 

The highlight of the season was an extended road trip to Minnesota, where they went 4-0 in games from Feb. 21-25 against fellow Division II teams in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association, or MCLA. This included an overtime win over the No.1 ranked school.

Entering the road trip, the Aggies were ranked No.16 after two big losses against the University of Utah and Utah Valley University to open the season. Beating four teams in the top 15 gave them some well-deserved recognition. USU catapulted to No.3 in the March 2 MCLA Divison Ⅱ poll. As of March 23, they’re No. 6 in the poll. 

Head coach Scott Bingham said the losses to Utah’s Division II team and MCLA Division Ⅰ UVU help them see what they needed to work on going into Minnesota. 

“Anyone from the outside looking in would just expect Utah State to make this trip, take four losses and then come home”, Bingham said. “We had a discussion as a team that there was no expectation and no pressure on us as a program.”

And according to the Vice President of the team, Spencer Bishop, said the Aggies had a chip on their shoulder coming into the four games. 

USU started the road trip with an 11-4 win over No. 8 North Dakota State and a win over No. 12 St. Johns 7-6 the following day. 

“We gained confidence with every win,” Bishop said.

Coming off two wins, the Aggies were feeling good but knew their stiffest competition was ahead of them. 

Going into the third game, St. Thomas was the No. 1 ranked team in Division II poll. Utah State needed to play their best game to pull out a win.

The game was back and forth throughout and, with 1:20 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Aggies were down two goals.

But they were determined to pull out a win.

“We came into the huddle and as a team, we said, ‘we’ve played good to this point, let’s put everything we got into the last minute and 20 seconds,’” Bishop said. 

The Aggies did just that. 

USU scored two quick goals to tie the game up and sent it to overtime. They wasted no time in overtime, coming up with a crucial save on defense and sending it back down on offense looking to score. Utah State ran a set offense and Hunter Combe got the ball.

He dodged right and sunk in a goal to win the game 8-7 in overtime.

“I kinda blacked out at that point,” Bishop said. “It’s not every day that you get to play the number one team and let alone beat them in overtime. So that was awesome.”

The Aggies continued their hot streak in Minnesota by beating No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth 12-6 to finish off a very successful road trip for the Aggies.

Freshman Cooper Williams scored four straight times to close out the game. Bishop said he could tell that Williams was itching to score and finally seeing him able to was a great moment during the trip.

“It was so cool to see a freshman step up and it made me realize the impact every freshman has. Everyone accepted their role and that’s really why we were able to win the game.”

Bingham was pleased with the whole team during the trip but specifically the performance of the goalies during the whole road trip.

“Our goalies played lights out,” Bingham said.

Berklee Baskin and Bostin Preisler split the four games for the Aggies. Baskin saved 66% of shots while Preisler saved 72%. 

Priesler was named the PEARL Division II Goalie of the Week and Baskin was on the PEARL Honor Roll.

The Goalies were also crucial in helping the Aggie offense get started in many of the games.

“They’re super good clearing goalies,” Williams said. “They helped us transition the ball faster to the offense which helped the offense get the ball and settle it more.”

Senior attackman Brock Arbon added to the accolades, earning the MCLA Player of the Week award with seven goals and two assists, including four against St. Thomas. 

Bingham said the trip to Minnesota was two years in the making. The Aggies were able to “make their mark on the national scene” with the four wins in Minnesota.

When the Aggies weren’t dismantling their opponents on the field, they were bonding as a team. The team has a special tradition of playing Super Smash Bros. tournaments on road trips. The team takes it so seriously that there was a trophy made for it.

“It’s a big bragging rights tradition,” Bishop said.

The team was also able to visit the Mall of America on their off day on Wednesday. Williams said hanging out with the team all the time was great for chemistry building.

“Over the week, I felt like I connected a lot faster and better with everyone,” Williams said.

Players and coaches on the team think Utah State fans would enjoy watching lacrosse. It has many similarities to other popular at Utah State, such as hockey.

“It’s like hockey on grass,” Bishop said. “Both sports are very fast-paced and physical. Lacrosse is often described as the fastest sport on two feet. You see some fights and big hits. You might not think that without watching it, but we got some guys on our team that can lay some big ones out there.” 

USU has had two games since the Minnesota tournament, defeating Northern Arizona 7-2 on March 4, and falling to Montana State 10-2 on March 5. They have five additional home games remaining, including a matchup Friday the 25th against Northwest Nazarene and Saturday the 26th against Boise State. Bishop invites everyone to come out and watch the team compete at Legacy Fields. 

“Now that it’s getting warmer and hockey has died down, it’s a great sport for those USU hockey fans to come to if they’ve got nothing to do on Fridays or Saturdays,” he said.