TUCSON, Arizona—The Rams played an ugly game against the University of Arizona on Monday. Some messy plays allowed the Wildcats to take possession and keep up with CSU on the scoreboard for the first half, but the Rams pulled it together in the second half to defeat them 13-8.<!--more--> “I would classify this as an ugly win,” Head Coach Alex Smith said. “I don’t mean to take anything away from Arizona because they played great, but we played out of character.” Little mistakes cost the Rams the ball a number of times, and it seemed like the players weren’t 100 percent in the game. “We are better than what we showed today and if we bring that effort again we might not get a win,” Coach Smith said. The Wildcats kept neck and neck with the Rams for the first half, never letting a goal go unanswered with their own in return. The Rams’ offense had to work hard for every goal they scored, and the Wildcats kept their defense busy as well. Rams goalie Alex Jacques made several great saves during the game and stopped 13 shots. But the game wasn’t always bleak. Rams’ attack men Cooper Kehoe and Austin Fisher were part of many plays that got the stands cheering. At one point Kehoe snagged the ball from the goalie as he was trying to clear it and shot it back into the goal, and at another time in the game Fisher had the ball, came around the crease, and tossed the ball in over the goalie’s shoulder. After about 45 minutes of struggle the Rams started to play at the caliber that they’ve usually played at this season. They took smarter shots and kept the Wildcat’s goalie busy guessing where the shot would come from, and the defense worked even harder to disrupt the Wildcat’s plays. The Rams outplayed the other team in the second half, as is traditionally their style. They bolted ahead on the score board scoring six more points and getting a five point lead on the Wildcats. “I was happy with the way we finished the game but I think we learned a lesson in how to prepare today. We had an idea of what they were all about but we did a bad job getting individually ready to play,” Coach Smith said. “I hope that’s not a problem looking forward.” The Rams will play one more game while on their trip to Arizona against Chico State this Wednesday at the Arizona State University fields. A live Twitter feed will be available by following CSUMensLAX.