A gray and foggy Terry Fox Field played host to the Arizona Lax- cats last weekend, marking the sixth game of the Clan’s season.
The visiting team over- whelmed SFU with a final victory of 14–12, despite a strong Clan comeback in the final three where they outscored their opponents 10–8.
“Arizona flat out outplayed us. They set the bar out of the gate and forced us to play catch- up all game,” says head coach Brent Hoskins of Arizona. “Full credit to them and Coach Felton for travelling up to Canada and beating us in the rain on a day where they clearly wanted the win more than we did.”
The opening quarter of the game strongly favoured Arizona with a 3–0 lead, with the first two points scored by Luke Strode, and a marker from Ben Brehne.
The Clan’s first point was by freshman Alex Bohl; however, the small victory was short lived as Arizona sophomore Zach Johnson singlehandedly scored three consecutive goals and brought the score up to 6–1 for the Laxcats. The first quarter wrapped up with another SFU goal by attackman Colton Dow.
The Clan got their heads back in the game for the start of the second quarter, with SFU’s Ward Spencer bringing the score back to a manageable 6–3, shortly to be 7–3 with a goal by Arizona freshman Theodore Wolter.
The Clan wasted little time in closing the gap to a 7–5, with contributions by Sam Clare and Andrew Branting. The Laxcats
got their claws out for the final push, ending the quarter with a
9–5 lead.
The third quarter began with another burst from the Clan, thanks to goals by Dow and Spencer. Dow got another quick goal for SFU following another Arizona point by Wil- liam Stanaback.
Thescore was resting at a cozy 10-8 for Arizona until Brehne and Johnson each scored a point, leaving the Lax- cats purring with a 12–8 lead at the close of the third quarter.
The final push saw goals from Arizona’s Johnson and Ecker, starting the last quar- ter with a six-point lead by the Laxcats. The Clan tried hard to catch up, with a goal by Dow sandwiched between two Clare points. Despite SFU’s noble ef- forts, they were unable to tame the Laxcats enough to win and the final horn ended the game with a 14–12 win for Arizona.
This game moved SFU to 4–2 on the year, with Arizona im- proving to 2–2 in their fourth game this season.
Leaving little time to deliberate on their defeat, the Clan was back on the road this past weekend to play three games in Colorado. On March 9, they played No. 1 Colorado State, with another game against Colorado the next day, and they finish the trip March 12 against Virginia Tech.
