Feb 13-16 games

#3 BYU - 14
'Sota - 4

....BYU without a doubt one of the top teams I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Very well coached, intelligent, and highly skilled...exceptionally classy players. Relentless on ground balls. We missed some easy dunks on the crease which would have made for a better score, but BYU was a superior team in every facet. Big shout-out to our goalie, who played a phenomenal game.

#6 Duluth - 11
#11 Oregon - 9

Very fun game to watch; about as physical as they get. Oregon's poles were some of the dirtiest stick-checkers I've seen at this level, de-sticking several players multiple times, and seemingly taking the ball at will. Duluth won a close game in the final minutes, carried by excellent goaltending and several snipes from middie Dan Pitzl, and others.

#11 Oregon - 12
'Sota - 6

Disappointing. We came out strong and took the first quarter by a 3-0 score, but two simultaneous illegal-crosse penalties, and injuries to Pete Rohrer (all-conf. defender) and Nate Robitshek (best transition middy)--on top of our starting LSM missing the game with 8 fresh stitches over his eye--gave Oregon the momentum they needed to get back in the game and take over, leading to a 5-3 Oregon advantage at halftime. Transition was a big difference in this game, as we had inconsistent clearing after the injuries, while Oregon rode very effectively. Poor shot placement by us resulted in too many giveaways, and Oregon took advantage of our undermanned defense on the other end.

Personally, got to say I'm proud of the way we played, no one gave up, and the mistakes we made are very correctable and will make us a far better team when we nail them down. We've made huge strides in the dozen or so practices we've had since we changed coaches. Also, several rookies stepped up big time against difficult opponents, including Matt Puskarich (LSM from Madison LaFollete) and Tom Vanvalkenburg (former attack from Green Bay Southwest)...I fully expect both improve considerably as the season continues.

Hopefully I'll get the other scores from around the UMLL up soon.
#3 BYU just beat #6 Duluth by an 11-9 margin. No info from the game at this time. BYU will be playing Oregon this Monday.

P.S. Jack/Jaron, always a pleasure seeing you fellas. Good luck next weekend vs. UMD.

Final notes on the weekend:

BYU:

Unquestionably the most tenacious, but amazingly classy team I have ever seen. These boys could play. It seemed as if they took a track team, and turned them into lacrosse players. Every single one of them could move, and they did. I've never seen an MCLA team with the comprehension and understanding of the game that BYU posessed. I would not be surprised to see them win it all.

Oregon:

Nothing insane, but a very solid team. Sometimes emotions get the best of them, but they still know how to put it together. There poles are athletic, and tall, and play a finesse/takeaway style of game. Middies push well in transition, but seem to get tunnel vision at times.

Duluth:

I heard rumors that Duluth had potentially fallen a bit this season, but I gotta be honest, I didn't see it. I was most impressed with them offensively. Individually the play of Mithun (#4), Pitzl (#9), and Thomas-Olsen (#34) was impressive. Pitzl may be one the best all around middies in the MCLA, and his shot on the run seems undefendable at times. Mithun does a good job controlling his offense, and is a deceptively good feeder. Defensively, the long poles are surprisingly quick for their size, and have good sticks on clears. Of course the big question was goalie, but the new guy seemed to step up pretty well. I am excited to finally play against them next weekend.

Minnesota:

Looking good this year. I gotta say, their attack didn't let me down. Bice, Libera, and Eckstein all looked good. Midfield wise, #1 was a good player, and fairly big too. It seemed like if one of the attackmen was playing down, the others could operate fine without him. Defensively, Storts, Rohrer, and PK all played solid. The new goalie looked good.

P.S Storts, good notes, I like your ideas, lets get together ASAP.