The game started slowly in the first quarter as both teams shook off the effects of Friday night’s semifinal contests. The Cougars slowly built a 3-0 lead after one quarter, mostly behind the efforts of attackman Justin Heir. Heir scored two goals in the first quarter and two more in the second on his way to a game-high five points. The real turning point in the first half came with five minutes left in the second period as the Cougars ran off four goals in just under two minutes to take an 8-1 lead into the halftime break. BYU’s run was punctuated when long pole Britton Cone went coast to coast and finished an odd-man situation to close out the first half scoring.

A wet field from a soggy Friday night made footing tricky on the Field Turf surface as both teams struggled at times to stay upright. BYU seemed to have the better of it early on, but when the rain really hit early in the second half, it was the CSU offense that finally began to click. Mark Davis scored his third goal of the game early in the third quarter to make the score 9-1 for the Cougars, but from then on, the momentum clearly rested on the green and gold side of the field.

The Rams battled back to score four of the next five goals as senior attackman Danny Stevens (Suffern HS; Suffern, NY) began to get on track. The RMLC’s Offensive MVP spearheaded a CSU offense that narrowed the gap to 10-5 early in the fourth quarter. Even when BYU answered back to make the lead 11-5, CSU continued to charge, scoring another two goals to tighten the score to 11-7 with over 12 minutes remaining.

After seemingly nothing worked for the Rams offensively in the first half, nearly nothing could go wrong early in the fourth quarter as Pat Bird (Bishop O’Dowd HS; Oakland, CA) and Ryan MacDonald (Smoky Hill HS; Aurora, CO) each pitched in with two goals to keep CSU within striking distance. Senior long stick Adam Schnirel (Mt. Lebanon HS; Pittsburgh, PA) answered Cone’s early goal by going to the rack himself and firing home a shot that brought the score to 12-10 with 4:11 remaining in the game. Mounting the comeback took a lot out of CSU, however, and the Rams couldn’t get over the hump in the final four minutes as the game’s whistles increased down the stretch.

Senior midfielder Brian Vickery (Rangeview HS; Aurora, CO) had two goals for the Rams and d-middie specialist Jack Genadek (Roseville HS; Roseville, MN) turned in a hearty effort as well. Junior goaltender Tyson Ehinger (Heritage HS; Littleton, CO) made 9 saves in the loss while BYU’s netminder Christian Kikumoto had 15 saves for the victors. CSU’s man-up performance was especially disheartening considering the amount of opportunities (7) they had in the second half. The Cougars also won the face-off battle, taking 17 of 26 draw opportunities.

Both teams will be traveling to Dallas in a week and a half for the MCLA national championships. The tournament will feature the top 16 teams in the entire MCLA and pit them in a four games in five days endurance test for all the marbles. BYU takes back the RMLC crown for the first time since 2005 with their victory and will be the top seed in the national tournament.

Lacrosse Box Score (Final)
#2 Colorado State Univ. vs #1 Brigham Young Univ. (May 05, 2007 at Colorado Univesity)

Colorado State Univ. (13-3) vs.                   
Brigham Young Univ. (16-2)                        
Date: May 05, 2007  Attendance: 250               
Weather: Cold with Intermittent Heavy Rain                                         

SCORE BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ.  0  1  3  6 - 10
Brigham Young Univ..  3  5  2  2 - 12

Colorado State Univ. SCORING: GOALS: Stevens, Danny 2; Bird, Pat 2; MacDonald,
Ryan 2; Tomlinson, John 1; Stone, Brian 1; Lundberg, Stephen 1; Schnirel, Adam
1.
ASSISTS: Vickery, Brian 2; Stevens, Danny 1.

Brigham Young Univ. SCORING: GOALS: Hier, Justin 5; Davis, Mark 3; Ferrin, Ted
1; Davis, Paul 1; Cone, Britton 1; Wallace, Neil 1.
ASSISTS: Austin, Josh 1; Grow, Elliot 1; Monteath, Tyler 1.

GOALTENDER SUMMARY
Colorado State Univ.      Minutes   GA   W/L Saves
--------------------------------------------------
18 Ehinger, Tyson......     60:00   12           9

Brigham Young Univ.       Minutes   GA   W/L Saves
--------------------------------------------------
8  Kikumoto, Christian.     60:00   10          15

SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot             
-------------------------------------             
Colorado State Univ.  6  9 10 13 - 38             
Brigham Young Univ..  7  9  8 10 - 34             

SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ.  0  2  4  3 -  9
Brigham Young Univ..  2  5  4  4 - 15

GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  3  4  Tot             
-------------------------------------             
Colorado State Univ. 11  6 18 17 - 52             
Brigham Young Univ..  9 10 11 12 - 42             

TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ. 11  5  7  6 - 29
Brigham Young Univ..  9  9  5 11 - 34

FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ.  2-4   1-7   2-6   4-9  -  9-26
Brigham Young Univ..  2-4   6-7   4-6   5-9  - 17-26

CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ.  6-8   3-4   3-5   6-8  - 18-25
Brigham Young Univ..  7-8   4-5   5-8   3-7  - 19-28

EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Colorado State Univ.  0-3   0-1   0-3   0-4  -  0-11
Brigham Young Univ..  0-0   0-2   0-0   0-3  -  0-5

PENALTIES - Colorado State Univ. 5/4:00; Brigham Young Univ. 11/8:30.
Officials: Lachat, Joe; Friedman, Hank; Lynch, Frank. Scorer: Flax, Andy.