Crossed up at home

    Students, parents and fans filled the metal bleachers on that lined the intramural fields on Sunday, Oct. 21 to witness the fast-paced, hard-hitting action that the game of lacrosse promises.
     For GCSU, it was the first home game the campus had ever seen, as the Bobcat lacrosse club hosted the Owls of Kennesaw State University.
    Unfortunately for those fans GCSU’s team was mauled by an offensive onslaught by Owls.
    “The turnout was awesome,” Co-president Matt Miller said. “I am really pleased, and we appreciate the enthusiasm from the crowd, I just wish we could have given a little better performance.”
    The Bobcats appeared outgunned on the field and when the final seconds ticked off the clock the team found themselves defeated 16-4.
    However the Bobcats played their best in the final minutes of the game when they managed to score two back-to-back goals with a minute left to play.
    “We kind of stepped it up in the second half,” Cory Adams, the club’s vice president, said. “Especially at the end there.”
    KSU took control of the game from the very first face-off. The Owls showed their offensive prowess with a combination of speed, strength and stick skills to score six unanswered goals in the first fifteen-minute quarter. KSU attacker Scott Shulze tallied two goals and an assist in the period including the opening goal that he bounced into the upper-right corner of the goal at the 13:33 mark.
    The Bobcats only had one real opportunity in the quarter.
    Bobcat attacker James Vore took the ball across mid-field and dished to defender Tim Barnes whose shot attempt was handled by KSU goalie Weaver Bearden at 11:43.
    KSU continued to expose the Bobcats’ weaknesses in the second quarter scoring four more goals.
    However, the Bobcats did manage to get on the board when midfielder Jeremy Abraham fired a shot passed Beardon to give the Bobcats their first goal scored at home and cutting the score to 8-1.
    The Bobcats defense seemed to come to life in the third quarter, when the team managed to hold the Owls to three goals, while GCSU attacker David Wilson added one himself.
    “I think we played okay in the second half,” Adams said. “We were getting after it a little more, picking up more ground balls and passing well.”
    KSU slowed the game down in the fourth quarter using a style of play that resembled the “four-corners offense” that legendary University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith used in basketball.
    Owl attacker Tyler Yelken added another KSU goal to make the score 14-2 with about seven minutes left to play.
    The goal appeared to offend the Bobcats as suddenly a series of viscous hits erupted, sparked when Barnes put an Owl defender on his back, and Adams found a KSU player of his own to lay out.
    But it was too little, too late as each team added two more goals in the final minutes, and the Owls marched off the field victorious.
    “We played horrible in the first half,” Miller said. “But the second was much better, we just started out slow. Obviously, our inexperience showed and we know we have lots of things to work on, but we’re getting better.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 1 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry