Southern Oregon University’s Men’s Lacrosse team opened up their 2016 season with a bang against Humboldt State University this past weekend.
Right from the beginning, SOU took the lead. Freshman, Garrett Greenway scored with an EMO (extra man offense) play making it his first goal in college. Following in his footsteps was freshman, Scott Comer who scored to lead SOU 2-0.
The Raiders snuck in two more points by Ari Feldman and Spencer Pregal before the ending of the first quarter putting SOU at 4-0.
Dominating 12 of the 16 face-offs was junior Harley Humphrey, helping SOU to take quick possession and control of the ball. Even when the ball fell in the hands (or LAX sticks) of Humboldt State, senior Sam Taylor regained possession of the ball producing 13 turnovers, which is an SOU record in one game.
During the second quarter the Raiders still came on strong, putting in five more goals starting with freshman Andre Morris who scored unassisted. Despite the aggressive defense of the Hogs, SOU’s defense was superior, putting the Raider’s at 9-0 to lead at the half.
The scoring pace slowed dramatically during the second half, with SOU only scoring three times. Scott Comer made his second goal of the day following by a couple more points by the Raiders. The hogs were finally able to make a goal putting them on the scoreboard 12-1.
The Raiders were unable to score during the fourth quarter and the Hogs managed to sneak in a final point with 4:34 left on the clock. SOU took the victory of 12-2.
Head Coach Mark Brown attributes his team’s success to starting (scoring) fast, playing hard, and continuing to work hard throughout the game. He mentioned that the team’s preseason training wasn’t the easiest though. “Our practices have been going well but we are really beat up. We’ve got plenty of guys that are injured who sat on the bench and didn’t play today. We need to get them healthy again so they can get back into the game.”
Even though the Raiders dominated this game Coach Brown says there is always room for improvement. “We could work on our extra man offense because when we had two of our starters out they needed a lot of work. Our second lineman also needs to know how to run our offense.”
This successful season opener gives the team and Coach Brown confidence. “Hopefully we’ll get everybody healthy and up-and-running. It should be a good year.”
Raiders will be heading south to gear up against San Jose State University on Saturday.
