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Colorado State Goes Undefeated in Fall, Look Ahead to Tough Spring
by Alex Smith, '02
Flip Naumburg may not have been sure what to expect from his 2002-2003
Colorado State Rams squad coming in, but at the end of the fall season,
suffice it to say he is satisfied with what he got.
Despite their undefeated record, perhaps the greatest thing gained during
the fall was an undeniable sense of team unity. Fresh faces were peppered
throughout the lineup on the offensive side of things and the defense
continued to improve with the welcome return of Ryan Robichaud. The
additions of key freshmen Clint Chafin, Pat Bird and Derek Koll also have
the Rams looking hungrily forward to their challenging spring schedule.
Colorado State started their fall season down the road in Golden at the
Colorado School of Mines fall tournament where three fellow RMILL teams
awaited them. The first test was in the morning against arch-rival
Colorado, a team that had narrowly lost to the Rams in the RMILL
Championships last spring. CSU started slowly, but thanks to a coast to
coast goal by All-American senior defenseman Jeff Schmid, the Rams struck
first and held on to a tough 7-5 victory. Six different Rams scored in the
game with junior attackman Nick Stanitz-Harper leading the way with two
goals. Next up was a game with Western State, last year’s RMILL Division II
runners-up. Western was no match for CSU as rookies Jon Carpenter and Matt
Reiss scored a combined five goals in an 11-4 win. In the final tournament
game of the day, the Rams squared off with Northern Colorado, a team looking
to make a splash in their first year of RMILL Division I action. Colorado
State was relentless in the game early. The starting attackmen combined for
16 points as CSU dominated every phase of the game. After the 17-4 win and
a 3-0 day, the Rams had answered questions in some phases of their game, but
still knew they had to work to get ready for the Alumni game. Phil Eichhorn
and Clint Chafin were solid on face-offs and the defense was effective all
day, but there was still some gelling to do on offense.
Coming into the 2002 Alumni game, there were many predicting that this could
be the year the old guys finally got their elusive first victory against
Naumburg’s squad. Former All-Americans Mike Roth, Pat Coy, Mike Napolilli,
Doug Priebe, Ty Wilson, Ryan Ferrin, and Pat Shanley all got in their fair
share of talking the week leading up to the game and actually scored first
on a behind the backer by Priebe against former high-school teammate Alex
Smith. But with the dinosaurs leading 2-1 in the first, Colorado State
turned to sophomore middie Tim Farquhar to spark a blitz of goals. When it
was all said and done, the Alumni could only shake their heads at the 19-6
score and leave the field muttering, “Maybe next year.”
After a week break, Colorado State was ready to host their tournament in
Fort Collins. On a beautiful fall day, two men’s club teams and three USLIA
squads geared it up for some good lacrosse action. CSU separated into two
teams for the tournament with CSU “Gold” being coached by Naumburg, and the
“Green” team taken by former long-stick middie Chris Gemperline. The Green
team took on Fort Lewis College in the opening game of the day and had no
trouble dispatching them with an 8-3 win. The game showcased a lot of young
talent for CSU. Kyle Klossner, Mike Ackman, Joe Lauber, and Tim Chorey all
played well in the dominating effort. The Gold team stopped watching this
game midway through the first half to prepare for Spot, a men’s club team
from Denver. Playing on an extremely wide field, CSU struggled early to get
rhythm, relying on the defense to keep the wily club team at bay. Finally
the offense found their stride and the Rams rode away to an 8-2 victory.
Seniors Ryan Robichaud and Jeff Schmid, sophomore Ryan Price and junior Mark
Plonkey played very well in front of senior Alex Smith from this point
forward in the tournament, as well as the fall. CSU Gold then beat CSU
Green in the second game and the table was set for another undefeated day.
The only thing standing in CSU’s way were those pesky Buffaloes from
Boulder. This game proved to be much different than the earlier match-up in
Golden as the Rams dominated for much of the afternoon. In an extremely
balanced effort, Colorado State got three points each from Farquhar,
Stanitz-Harper and junior Bo Everett. In addition, the defense allowed just
four shots on goal in the entire game and cleared nearly flawlessly, much to
the delight of coach Naumburg.
The last tournament of every fall, and probably the most important as far as
determining where the team really is, is the Best of the West Tournament in
Las Vegas, Nevada. CSU was returning for the fifth straight year to compete
in a tournament where they had never lost a game. But the face of the team
was drastically different for this year’s edition of “mini-St. Louis.” Nick
Stanitz-Harper suffered a devastating injury off the field and CSU was left
with zero returning attackman for their trip. Senior captain Kale Nelson
made the move up to attack to fill in, but there were many questions about
whether the Rams could fill his hole at the midfield. On the docket for the
Rams were two teams they had never played before and two rivals from years
past. Cal Poly and Cal State Chico were the wild cards of the tournament
and the Rams didn’t know what to expect from them. But the Rams were all
too familiar with Sonoma State and Brigham Young, two perennially superior
teams in the USLIA.
The first game of the day was against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a team that
had made their first appearance in the USLIA national championship
tournament in 2002 and was looking to move up in the WCLL. Both teams
looked nervous early in a very sloppy opening half. Despite out-shooting
the Mustangs 26-7, CSU was not able to finish and only led 3-1 at the half.
But the face-off work of Eichhorn and Chafin (8 wins, 1 loss) kept the ball
on Poly’s defensive side of the field for much of the contest. When the
game ended, CSU had scored only five goals against the Mustangs in a 5-2
win. Nelson had two goals and junior Kelten Johnson scored 1 goal and 2
assists to lead the way on a slippery field at the campus of UNLV.
Last year, two of the Rams losses came at the hands of the Sonoma State
Cossacks, including one in the most important game of all, the national
championship game. But now the mascot of Sonoma State is the Seawolves and
neither team showed much resemblance to last year’s national title game
combatants. The Ram defense continued to shine, forcing relatively easy
shots all day for Smith, who ended the game with 11 saves and 2 goals
against. Senior middie Jared Katz played well in transition and Colorado
State had a fairly easy time of it against last year’s national champions.
Nelson had three points while Farquhar and senior Jim Hasson each picked up
two in a very complete effort. CSU emptied the bench a little in the second
half and held on to win 10-5. For the game, the Rams out-shot the Seawolves
30-18.
Looking ahead to the nightcap with Brigham Young, Colorado State thought
they had everything going for them on the day and prepared for a rest
against an unheralded Chico State team. Freshman Pete Jokisch made his
first start of the day in goal as the Rams were ready to empty the bench.
But looking across the field in warm-ups, it became quickly apparent that it
was going to take more than a half-hearted attempt to down the upstart
Wildcats. Naumburg wisely decided to keep the starters in early and the
decision paid off. In fact, Chico scored the first goal of the game to put
Colorado State in a position they had not been in since Spot scored the
first goal of the game back in September: trailing. Chico battled all game
long and it took CSU’s best to beat them 8-5. Chico outscored the Rams 3-2
in the last half, showing heart all the way. Farquhar and Nelson once again
led the way with 3 goals and 2 goals respectively. Bo Everett also played
well in the win.
After the close call against Chico State, Colorado State got to gear up
against their favorite rival, Brigham Young, who is tabbed to win the RMILL
crown in 2003. Neither team looked at all like last year’s squads, though
BYU had looked strong as ever in earlier tournament action. In the first
half, CSU played some of its best ball of the fall, keeping the Cougars out
of their end for much of the action. On defense Price, Plonkey, Robichaud
and Schmid all kept BYU out of sync while the offense went to work on the
other end of the field. Freshman Pat Bird, who had scored in every other
game of the day, had two spectacular goals in the first half to spark the
team to a 5-1 lead. The second half was plagued with penalty flags as the
Cougars began to lose a little discipline. At one point, they were down
three men, but the Rams could not capitalize. Tyler Storer made a couple of
terrific saves for BYU to keep them in the game, but with the shortened
halves, the Cougars never had a chance to rebound from the first half.
Nelson (3g, 1a) played his best game of the fall, breaking down the defense
and distributing consistently. Bo Everett, Matt Disney (1g, 1a) and Kelten
Johnson (1g, 2a) all played very well in controlling the ball for most of
the second and CSU’s defense remained fresh to make plays when they had to.
When the whistle sounded, the Rams had the victory in hand 7-2 and left
Vegas without a loss again.
With a grueling spring schedule that includes regular season trips to
Arizona (U of A), Florida (Virginia Tech, Florida, Florida State and Auburn)
and Utah (BYU, Utah Valley and Utah), as well as home games against
Illinois, Colorado, Oregon and Michigan, the Rams will have their work cut
out for them in 2003. This year will mark the most non-conference teams
(four) ever coming to Fort Collins to play, up from one in the last two
years. Ten of the teams on the schedule will likely be in the preseason
USLIA top 25 poll and one, Colorado College, is a candidate to be ranked in
NCAA Division III. It will be an arduous journey back to St. Louis for the
Rams, who are looking to play in their fifth straight national title game
and make their sixth straight USLIA final four appearance for coach Flip
Naumburg.
*Colorado State Names Captains for Spring Season*
At the fall banquet on November 2, the Rams chose their captains for the
spring season. Jared Katz and Kale Nelson will make their second and third
stints in that role respectively along with fellow senior Ryan Robichaud who
was a captain in 2001.
Katz, a fifth-year senior out of Hopkins HS in Hopkins, MN, will be making
his second appearance as captain of the team. After sickness sidelined him
for most of his freshman year, this speedy midfielder went from the bottom
of the depth chart to starting in one short year. He makes his living in
the middle of the field gobbling up ground balls and creating transition as
well as being one of the best defensive middies on the team. Last year Katz
scored 8 goals and had 8 assists in the regular season. He was selected to
the All-RMILL team as well as the USLIA All-Tournament team.
Kale Nelson attended Rangeview HS in Aurora, CO and will return as captain
for the third year. Nelson has been a utility man for the Rams, playing
every position on the field except for goalie during his tenure. An
excellent stick handler with great field awareness, Nelson has been one of
the rocks the CSU program has built upon during the last four years. Last
year, he scored 12 goals and 12 assists as a two-way middie, but will be
counted upon more this year to contribute to the offense, filling in at
attack until Stanitz-Harper can return to full strength. Nelson was
selected as All-RMILL, All-American and All-Tournament last year.
Ryan Robichaud, a defenseman from Eaglecrest HS in Aurora, CO alum, was
captain and All-American at the end of the 2001 campaign until a leg injury
forced him out of action for the entire 2002 season. After just a short
time back in action, he has made an immediate impact on an already solid
defensive unit with his size, strength and leadership. Robichaud sees the
field extremely well and forms a terrific unit with Ryan Price, Mark Plonkey
and Jeff Schmid. A patient defender who rarely commits penalties, Robichaud
will be counted on to continue the improvement he made in the fall.
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Flip's Journal
Read a very interesting log of the CSU head coach's thoughts. |
All-Time Points Leaders
since 1998 season: G-A-Pts
1 Mike Roth ('01) 243-132-375
2 Mike Napolilli ('02) 170-160-330
3 Pat Shanley ('98) 138-68-206
4 Ryan Davis ('02) 107-66-173
5 Kelten Johnson ('04) 76-93-169
6 Nick Stanitz-Harper ('05) 123-37-160
7 Jim Hasson ('03) 74-46-120
8 Tim Farquhar ('05) 74-43-117
9 Ryan Ferrin ('00) 60-53-113
10 Brian Linehan ('99) 62-34-96
All-Time Save Leaders
since 1998 season: Saves
1 Alex Smith ('03) 232
2 Cale Vanvelkinburgh ('01) 188
3 Pete Jokisch ('06) 117
See Full Lists
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Schedule/Results
2003 Game Results
2/15 - Arizona - Win 6-5
2/22 - Colorado - Win 12-11 OT
2/25 - Northern Colorado - Cancelled
3/1 - Colorado College - Cancelled
3/2 - Illinois - Win 9-3
3/7 - Virginia Tech - Win 15-4
3/8 - Florida - Win 18-12
3/9 - Florida State - Cancelled
3/10 - Auburn - Cancelled
3/25 - Oregon - Win 17-8
3/29 - Boise State - Cancelled
3/30 - Galyan's - Cancelled
3/30 - Colorado College - Loss 12-11
4/2 - Denver U. Club - Cancelled
4/4 - BYU - Win 7-6
4/5 - Utah Valley State - Win 17-5
4/5 - Utah - Loss 4-5
4/8 - Sonoma State - Win 6-5
4/12 - Michigan - Win 11-6
4/19 - Colorado - Win 7-5
4/22 - Northern Colorado - Win 25-3
RMILL Play-Offs
4/25 - Utah - Win 13-2
4/26 - BYU - Win 8-7
USLIA National Championship
5/7 - Boston College - Win 18-2
5/8 - Texas A&M - Win 12-9
5/9 - Sonoma State - Win 8-6
5/10 - UC Santa Barbara - Win 6-4
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USLIA National Poll
Announced on 5/16/03
1 Colorado State (30) - 18-2
2 UC Santa Barbara - 21-2
3 Sonoma State - 17-3
4 Brigham Young - 13-6
5 Texas A & M - 20-4
6 Michigan - 16-5
7 Florida - 15-5
8 Simon Fraser - 13-3
9 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - 11-8
10 Oakland - 15-3
11 Minnesota - Duluth - 18-3
12 Chico State - 12-5
13 Colorado - 11-9
14 Chapman - 12-7
15 Arizona - 9-8
16 Auburn - 10-6
17 UC San Diego - 10-4
18 Boston College - 12-3
19 Oregon - 11-5
20 Georgia Tech - 11-5
21 Washington U. - 8-7
22 Virginia Tech - 11-7
23 Stanford - 6-6
24 Texas Tech - 10-3
25 California - 10-5 |
New Ram Gear
Call the Rock-It Pocket offices and order by credit card at
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