CATLAX MAN wrote:Final from Rohnert Park, DG reporting,
BYU - 7
SSU - 8
Finally got some time to do a quick writeup of what I saw in RP this weekend. I only saw the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters, but this is what I saw...
The game was well played in spurts. The field was wet, so players were losing their footing a fair amount. Other than that, the game was played at a pretty high level.
I got to the game just as it went to 3-2 BYU. Noma came back nicely, scoring 2 more before the break. Mark Davis hit 2 pipes in the last 5 minutes of the 2nd, so it could have easily been 5-4 BYU instead of 4-3 Noma at halftime.
Noma got off to a good start in the 3rd quarter, running the score to 6-3. BYU kept their composure (unlike in other years) and got it back to 6-6. Noma's next goal was one of the sweetest I have seen in a long time. One of their long poles (#17 - Virden?) took the ball the length of the field. As he got into the box, he was hounded by Tschagenny. I heard titanium on titanium multiple times as Tschaggs hounded the guy. But the ball never came out. He didn't get a good angle to shoot, and all of the adjacents were shut off, so Virden kept going down the right side of the cage. Once he got behind the cage, he must have figured "oh well...I'll go for it" He stutter stepped about a yard or so behind the cage, and then wrapped around the right side. A bounce shot for a goal completed the run. It was a big time play, and even bigger in the context of the game situation.
BYU's offense seemed to be in a little bit of a funk (throwing low passes, dropping balls, throwing the ball away). SSU really went after BYU from the top of the box, and had some success there. All 3 goalies played very well. Makechnie stoned SSU twice on fast breaks, and kept BYU in the game in the 4th.
I've now seen BYU play against everyone in the top 5. From what I have seen, everyone in that group is capable of beating any other team on a given day. CSU is still the class of the league, but only because they continue to win the close games. Unlike last year, this is not a 2 horse race...4-5 teams have a legit shot at winning it all.
DG
