'08 PNCLL Final Fours in Missoula

[timekeeper]

Congratulations to Simon Fraser University for winning the league's DI title and to Western Oregon University for winning the league's DII title. Both games were intense, entertaining and about as well played as any I've seen in my 12 years involvement with the PNCLL.

Congratulations to the University of Oregon and to Western Washington University for your great seasons as well.

Good luck at nationals, Clan and Wolves!

One final shout out to Kevin Flynn, all his guys, the University of Montana and to all those who put together a first class final four. Very well done!

[AndyP]

Sounds like a great weekend and everything was run to a tea by a very classy Montana committee. The webcast was absolutely awesome and hopefully other teams will take the initiative to try to set something like this up in future tournaments.

As for the D1 final: Jardim and Swanson really impressed me. As Stockton put it, Jardim really did his best Curtis Manning impression throughout the entire game, prowling the whole field. Swanson made some ridiculous saves in the first 3 quarters, keeping the game extremely tight.

Ben Johnson was unreal for SFU. He singlehandedly seemed to set the tempo of this game; anytime UO gained any momentum, he would cleanly win a draw and let the SFU Offense settle it down. UO tried at least 3 different Face off guys to try to solve Johnson but he just kept dominating.

[plukid06]

Hey I just want to thank Kevin, Will and Montana for a great weekend. I thought that everything was run very well. Being able to go back and forth between the two games right next to each other was great on Sat. Nightlife was not to bad either. Thanks guys

[nhoskins]

Awesome weekend of lacrosse in Missoula! Well worth the drive and the speeding tickets

The D2 championship game was great, WOU pulled away 8-4 but a determined WWU team clawed back to send it to OT 9-9. Both teams played really well, and its too bad that the PNCLL won't be sending both of these teams to Nationals.

Thoughts on the D1 Final:

Johnson owned the faceoff X today. Complete opposite of what we saw last year where Oregon dominated possession and face offs. I think the first 10 faceoffs all came up SFU.

Swanson stood on his head today, while I felt Stewart struggled a little bit in the early going. When it mattered the most (4th quarter) though, Stewart came to play and allowed SFU to dominate the 4th.

I believe Blackmore only finished with one point today. SFU's defense did a great job containing him. Manning was a beast as usual, but I thought Miyashita really stood out today too.

King from SFU looked good today, as Oregon focused a lot on Towner, Foss and co. allowing some other SFU players to step up. Tessarolo couldn't be stopped all day though and was just plain dirty out there.

McMurdo from UO had a great weekend; he played some great shortstick defense today and contributed offensively as well.

I think UO had problems identifying a leader today, and no one stepped up to carry the team offensively as has happened in years past. SFU also struggled a bit, but finally "found themselves" in the fourth quarter where they showed why they are one of the best teams in the country.

All in all, a great game today and with a little luck, maybe the Ducks can squeak in as that 16th seed and make it to Dallas.

P.S. Thomas was ridiculous today.

[nhoskins]

D1 Championship is at 2:30 PM MST Sunday, unless there is some kind of super overtime thriller in the D2 game (which starts at 11 AM).

You called it!

[nhoskins]

Unofficial, Ducks 16 Montana 11, following the not so live feed was an adventure. Will have to wait for someone in attendance to give a run down. The ducks looked more patient on offense and they had a good ride going.
Go Ducks. I predicted 12-9, so they exceeded expectations.
bhsvideodad

The main turning point of this game came late in the second quarter. Oregon looked fragile after the Griz stormed back and took a 7-6 lead. A great feed from X resulted in a wide open Montana shot that dinged the post. UO took it back down the field and UM scored an own goal. The Ducks then scored a quick one before the quarter ended and it was 8-7 Oregon. After that, the Griz never looked the same.

[Da Wrightstuf]

I’d also like to thank Kevin Flynn and all of his guys at Montana for hosting a great tournament out in Missoula. We were blessed by fantastic weather both days, and it made for some good lacrosse. The venue on Sunday was awesome. The griz stadium and facilities were great, so again thanks Kevin.

As for a team, when we played against the griz I was impressed with their sticks and their ability to take advantage of momentum. We came out fast and it looked like we were going to cruise to a victory, and because of that we became less focused on offense and undisciplined on defense. We experienced the same experience that happened against BYU, where we have a solid first quarter, and then a come out weak the second quarter. We made the adjustments we needed to, and jumped back out. Our main faceoff man B. White had a stick problem, and the griz took advantage of this to bring it close again. Finally our guys decided to hustle and play fundamentally to pull away for good. One notable stat is that the griz beat us in ground balls by a 2:1 ratio.

Sunday was a warm day, and on the turf of the football field it was warm enough to break a sweat with a light jog. When we took to the field, we were in our shooting shirts and they were in their full gear. Also they had fewer numbers than we had, so I thought that we were going to have the advantage on endurance. That ended up being a false assumption.

SFU’s faceoff guy was amazing, I tried a bunch of options with face off guys and 3v3 faceoffs, but he was so fast it wasn’t effective.
We played a great game. Our guys showed heart and enjoyed playing together, even through all the adversity that they have faced in the recent weeks. For the most part we kept a positive attitude, and we supported each other on and off the field, which was great to see. Paul stood tall in the cage and made some absolutely fantastic saves. In the end, we just ran out of gas, and had to play extreme defense to try and get the ball back, which left our cage open for some easy goals. In my opinion it came down to faceoffs and energy levels.

Congratulations to SFU, I hope you represent the PNCLL well in nationals.

[Hi-Line Lax]

Wow... what a weekend. I'm definitely still a little burned out from all the walking/running/climbing stairs in the sun, but I am really happy about how things turned out on the whole. The weather was fantastic, so that made things a bit easier on me, and the facilities seemed to work out well too.

I didn't get to catch too much of the action this weekend, as I was usually occupied, but from what I saw we had some great games this weekend. All the teams that played were very respectful and accommodating to me, so kudos to you all, and the people who worked (our staff, UM staff, and officials) all did a great job.

Congrats to Simon Fraser and Western Oregon on earning the bids to represent the PNCLL at Nationals! Awesome work this weekend fellas and good luck in Dallas. Also, congratulations to Oregon, Washington, Western Washington, Puget Sound, Whitman, and my Grizzlies for wrapping up some great seasons... you should all be proud.

Big thanks to Will Moss (who is unbelievable), Ryan & Jason for their work up in the booth, Brian Miller controlling things on the sidelines, and to the Missoula high school players that chipped in this weekend... couldn't have done it without you! Cheers!

Thanks to everybody else who made it out to Missoula over the weekend (and to the MANY viewers who caught the action on GrizLax.com), we hope to see you again soon.

[Dan Wishengrad]

I concur with opinions above, and also want to thank Kevin Flynn and all the Griz players, coaches, staff and volunteers for an outstanding PNCLL tourney. The weather was simply perfect and the facilities were great. I really loved the Saturday soccer stadium venue, terrific place to play!

I would also like to publicly applaud Oregon for being a class act on and off the field all weekend. As Coach Wright notes in the preceding post, the Ducks had some significant adversity to overcome this year. UO has had some behavioral issues in the past and had earned a less than savory reputation in our conference and nationally because of this. But I saw a totally different group ethic out there this weekend, however, and the entire UO team deserves mention and credit for their sportsmanship and class. The Ducks battled ferociously on the field and were great ambassadors for their school off it. They beat a seriously-underrated Montana team in the semis fair-and-square and played SFU even for most of the finals. Great show, Ducks, and good luck next season (except against the Huskies, of course! ).

Congrats to The Clansmen and the Wolves, and good luck in Dallas, fellas! A final shout-out to WWU for a tremendous Final Four performance, I know you guys are disappointed but you have nothing to hang your heads about. Great come-back yesterday, Vikes!

[Chris Gaffney]

I thought the live webcast was pretty sweet.

Going forward, this would be a cool feature for other teams to pick up, especially for big out of conference or rivalry games. I'm sure there are other fans/alumni that would like to watch their favorite teams play, but just don't have the time to travel to all of the PNCLL venues.

Just my two cents....

[PokePokeSLAP]

excellent point Gaff.

-ROLL Head!

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

Thanks to everyone who chipped in this weekend as we again saw the best the PNCLL has to offer. . .on and off of the field.

Thanks to all of the parents and friends who made long trips to support their teams. . .

As for my thoughts on the games, you probably already heard more than you wanted to hear on the webcast. . .but as I look back, the story of the two finals games was face-offs.

Ian Bohince of WOU was a beast in the D2 Championship. He dominated the X, and was truly the key to his team building that 8-4 lead at the end of 3. He goes out with a hammy injury, and WWU sees the opening and battles back to tie the game. . .and then McWhirter, who was pretty much silent all game. . .gets the game winner in OT. . .great game, great drama.

For as good as Brett Whyte was on face-offs in the semis, he could not crack Ben Johnson in the Finals. Ben was 13 of 14 on face-offs at one point - and despite this the Ducks still found themselves tied at 8-8. Watching Manning vs. Blackmore at one end, and then Vincent vs. Towner at the other was truly a treat to a lacrosse fan. The departing seniors for the Ducks all played great games - Schane, Brunelle, Swanson and especially Vincent really played great in their final games. Congrats boys, and thank you for what you've done for the Duck Lacrosse program and the PNCLL. You will all be missed. . .almost as much as Julian. . .

As for the Griz - what great hosts you were. Kevin, Will Moss, Ryan and the crew. . .thanks for everything. Zander, Travis, Townsend, CJ, Jake, Whitney and Will. . .you guys definitely changed the face of Lacrosse in Montana? and your legacy is firmly in place. Thanks guys for the hospitality.

[Ryan Hanavan]

As for the Griz - what great hosts you were. Kevin, Will Moss, Ryan and the crew. . .thanks for everything.

Technically, I'm an independent contractor

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

As for the Griz - what great hosts you were. Kevin, Will Moss, Ryan and the crew. . .thanks for everything.

Technically, I'm an independent contractor

Sorry Dr. Hanavan. . .my bad. See you in September. . .

[Thrilla]

Will there be video available for purchase from the weekend?