Colorado Springs, CO – Colorado State, the newly minted #1 team in the MCLA, travelled two hours south on Saturday to take on long-time rival and NCAA Division III Colorado College on Saturday afternoon at Washburn Field in Colorado Springs. The Rams wasted little time putting their mark on the game, scoring a goal on their opening possession and then banging home five more in the first period alone to take an insurmountable lead and cruise to a comfortable 12-4 victory. CSU’s defense continued to shine, holding CC scoreless for the first 21:13 of game time and then keeping the Tigers off the board for the final 26:51 as well to punctuate the win.
CSU’s Austin Fisher (Rock Canyon HS / Highlands Ranch, CO) scored the first of his game-high five goals early in the contest before the Rams clicked into overdrive for the final 7:38 of the first frame. Twice, the Rams scored less than 15 seconds apart, including an impressive tally with just :02 on the clock when junior Dan Warfield (Smoky Hill HS / Aurora, CO) won the draw cleanly and fed sophomore Kacy Carter (Rock Canyon HS / Castle Rock, CO) for a long-distance blast to close the quarter. The 6-0 frame was all the Rams needed as the Tigers were unable to get much going against CSU’s veteran defense.
Fisher pushed the lead to 7-0 early in the second quarter before Colorado College rattled off three of the game’s next four goals to close the lead to 8-3, but junior Dustin Grybinas (Kirkwood HS / Kirkwood, MO) deposited a perfectly placed shot off the pipe to regain the momentum heading into halftime. CC struck first in the third quarter with 11:51 remaining, but the CSU defense clamped down after that and held the Tigers to minimal opportunities to close the game.
Ten different players registered at least a point on the afternoon for CSU. Fisher’s five goal effort led all scorers while two young attackmen, freshman Mike Wolff (Don Bosco Prep / Ramsey, NJ) and sophomore Sean Smith (Amherst HS / Amherst, NY), pitched in with three points as well. Henri Halle led all Tigers with three points and Carter, Alex Devlin (Langley HS / Langley, VA) and Greyson Konkel (Regis Jesuit HS / Aurora, CO) each had two points for CSU.
Warfield was great again at the face-off ‘x’ for Colorado State, winning 9 of 12 draws and setting up the key goal in the first quarter. CSU dominated all other statistical categories as well, outshooting CC 34-20, picking up 38 groundballs to just 19 for the Tigers and holding CC to just 12 of 20 clearing attempts.
Colorado State (5-0 overall) returns to MCLA play for the remainder of the season next week as they take their Spring Break trip to the Valley of the Sun. The Rams will face-off against #9 Arizona State on Saturday, #18 Stanford on Sunday and the University of Arizona on Tuesday. After Spring Break, CSU will host four games on campus heading into the stretch run of the season.