With the loud pre-game music blasting through the stadium and an upbeat Wildcat men’s lacrosse team facing an 0-4 Stanford team that was nowhere to be found, it seemed like Chico State had the game in the bag.
Despite arriving late to the game Sunday afternoon, the Stanford Cardinal were able to frustrate and outplay Chico State. Stanford easily took the league matchup after a lack of offense by the Wildcats. Daniel Hernandez-Luna
The Stanford Cardinal were late, thanks to a 95-year-old bus driver who almost crashed the bus a couple of times, said Cardinal head coach Drew Virk. It took them more than four hours to get from Palo Alto to Chico.
However, the team talked during the drive and knew what to expect, Virk said.
They only had about 30 minutes to warm up, which is short compared to Chico State. The Wildcats were out on the field an hour before game time, running drills and getting into game-mode.
However unlikely, the Cardinal proved when given four-plus travel hours and limited warm-up time, they could still win.
Despite the travel troubles, they played well and even started showing some much-needed emotion.
“Our guys were out here hootin’ and holerin’,” Virk said. “Freshmen I’ve never even seen talk all season all of a sudden were getting fired up.”
At first glance, the Stanford Cardinal looked scrawny, flat and severely outmanned withonly 17 players on their roster, compared to Chico State’s 34.
The Cardinal came out winning the face-off, quickly followed by an illegal trip by Chico State defensive-midfielder Joseph Zingali.
It was all Cardinal after that.
They scored the first goal and controlled the ball.
Chico State didn’t take care of the ball nearly as well, often times not looking as organized and patient as the Cardinal offense.
However, despite Chico State’s impatience, they still managed to score some impressive goals.
Zingali scored the first goal for the Wildcats in a one-handed move to the net, assisted by attack-man Graham Nichols.
Midfielder Dominic Cuneo scored a couple of times from deep outside the crease.
The standout Wildcat, however, was attack-man Kevin Law, who scored three goals and had one assist.
The Wildcats lacked an offensive enthusiasm and were in need of better screens and more cutters.
Cardinal freshman Jack Farr walked all over the defense and finished the game with four goals and two assists.
Farr could have often be found flying through the air in difficult maneuvers, trying to lead his team to victory.
“We’ve been working hard all week,” Farr said. “We’ve had a tough season so far but we had a really good practice this week. It was the first league game, so everyone was really excited and we got off that bus pumped and ready to go.”
Chico State head coach Charlie Jackson was disappointed with his team’s loss, he said.
“We knew they were a tough team,” he said. “But I still think we have a better team. I don’t think we played our best game.”
With all the quickness and talent the Wildcats have, they need to piece it together on game day, Jackson said.
“I think we’re still in the running for the playoffs,” Jackson said. “We just got to put it all together. We’ve been working so hard and it just didn’t come through.”
Luckily, unlike the Cardinal, the Wildcats are not suffering from any major injuries, though they could use the presence of defensive anchor Cary Smith and face-off guru Ari Wangerin.
The Cardinal have lost three men for the season and are currently short-handed another five, Virk said.
They played without their first line of defense and still managed to up-end Chico State.
The Wildcats also committed nine penalties compared to only one by Stanford.
Chico State, now 1-1 after its 10-6 loss, will face-off against 3-1 division foe UC Berkeley at 7 p.m. Friday in Berkeley.
http://www.theorion.com/sports/lacrosse-team-loses-first-game-patience-1.1218725
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