DURHAM, N.H. (4/25/11) – The No. 8 University of Colorado men’s lacrosse team held off a late run and defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats 9-8 in the Buffaloes final regular season game on Monday night at the UNH Outer Fields.
Colorado finishes the regular season with an 11-4 record after going 3-0 in their New England road trip. The loss is New Hampshire’s third in a row and drops their record to 2-8 overall.
A.J. Blackburn led the Buffs in scoring with two goals and one assist while teammates Tyler Dougherty and Hap Knowles finished with two point evenings. Dougherty had two goals while Knowles had one goal and one assist. Ben Johns, Jack Cranston, Matt White and Michael Beimford also scored for CU.
Brad Macnee had another dominate day in net for Colorado as the junior goaltender finished with 10 saves on 18 shots.
Early on, New Hampshire used their home field to their advantage as they scored twice in the first 2:05 of the game. However 24 seconds after Mark Cochrane gave the Wildcats the 2-0 lead, White scored in what began a 6-0 run for the Buffaloes in the quarter. UNH scored three times and held CU scoreless in the second quarter to make it a 6-5 game at the half.
In the third quarter, the Buffs extended their lead to 9-7 after they scored three times in the stanza. The fourth quarter featured tight play as neither team was able to gain an advantage until Daniel Milano scored for the Wildcats with seven seconds left in the game. New Hampshire didn’t have enough time to complete the comeback and Colorado held on for the victory.
Joe Gardner led UNH in the game with three goals and one assist while goaltender Jacob Katz finished with 15 saves on 24 shots.
Colorado will now have nearly two weeks to prepare for their rematch with No. 2 Colorado State in the first round of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference Playoffs. The No. 3 seed Buffs will play the No. 2 seed Rams at 4 p.m. on Friday May 6 at Mesa State College’s Walker Field in Grand Junction, Colo. The winner of the CU-CSU game will play BYU or Utah in the RMLC Championship game on May 7.
Colorado State is the defending conference champions and defeated Colorado earlier in the year in a 9-8 contest on Apr. 16 at INVESCO Field at Mile High in Denver. CU’s loss to their in-state rival is the Buffs’ only defeat in their last five games.
