Lacrosse season is here, SFU starts with two wins

By Bryan Scott

The Simon Fraser men’s lacrosse team began their 2013 regular season over the last week with two home games. They battled Western Washington University Vikings, who are in the lower Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League Div. II, and then Oregon State University Beavers who are in the PNCLL Div. I with SFU.

SFU has always dominated WWU, and have not lost their home-opener since the program began in 1996. This year would be no different. Freshman midfielder Alex Bohl led the way with two goals and his team high seven points. Ten goals were scored by the attack line of Colton Dow,
Ward Spencer, and Eric Ransom. Dow led the way with five, Ward had four and Ransom rounded it off.

On the defensive end, Mark Hilker used his jedi-like stick skills to keep the Vikings from getting too many good chances. When the ball did get through, more often than not Senior goaltender Kyle Middleton was there to make the save. He allowed seven goals but made 13 saves and had a .650 save percentage. He was a vacuum on loose balls, picking up a team high seven on the day.

The following day was a gorgeous, and it seemed like SFU was enjoying it too much in the first half. OSU’s goaltender made some crucial saves to keep the game scoreless early on. This allowed the Beaver’s to take advantage of some great cross field passing, and some brilliant shots to take the 2–0 lead after the first quarter.

To start the second quarter, Casey Fosters buried a great shot off the run to cut the lead to one. Dow and Ransom connected for more two goals after that to give SFU a 3–2 lead. Unfortunately, SFU sat back and let OSU score four unanswered goals to end the half, leaving them in a three-goal hole to start the second half.

Sam Clare was determined to start the half with a bang when he won the opening face-off and ran it down for the goal. The Beavers managed to respond with one of their own, but it was not enough for the barrage that was about to begin. SFU, led by Dow and Ransom, scored seven unanswered goals, to take a 11–7 lead. Some foul trouble late allowed the Beavers to score one more passed SFU goaltender Darren Zwack. Ransom racked up five points in the game, and Down followed with four.

Head coach Brent Hoskins was happy with his young team’s performance, “Today required a lot of patience in terms of relying on our systems to keep generating opportunities and ultimately finding a way to win, which is an experience that we feel will really benefit us moving forward.”