February 14, 1999 - In a match-up of two top USLIA teams, the #2 Cossacks (WCLL #1) played an away game at #11 Arizona (WCLL #3) on Sunday, February 13th.
Again, SSU started slowly and allowed the Laxcats to take a two-goal lead before the Cossacks were able to respond with two goals of their own. Before the first quarter ended, Arizona's flashy Bryan Moore scored his second goal allowing Arizona to take a 3-2 lead at the break. Arizona scored seven seconds into the second quarter off a fast break from the face-off, taking a 4-2 lead before the Cossacks finally tied it up again seven minutes later with goals from Ryan Horn and Jerrod Waller. With four minutes left in the half, Arizona took the lead for the third and final time when Matt Wilkens scored to make the score 5-4. With 35 seconds remaining in the half SSU's M.J. Crickmore scored to tie the game 5-5 and with 12 seconds on the clock, SSU called a time-out to set up a quick-scoring play. While the play fell apart, SSU's outstanding freshman midfielder, Jason Wollert, recognized a positive match-up and took his man to the rack and scored with 2 seconds to spare. The last second score gave SSU a 6-5 lead going into halftime and took away much of Arizona's momentum.
The second half began with quick scores from M.J. Crickmore and Brett Flynn which extended SSU's lead to 8-5. Defensively, the Cossacks were able to force predominately outside shots which goalkeeper Pat Ferguson saved easily. The third quarter ended with the Cossack defense shutting out the Laxcat offense. The fourth quarter started much the same way the third quarter did with two quick scores from Jerrod Waller and Brett Flynn which stretched SSU's lead to 10-5. Again the SSU defense was able to thwart the Arizona offense and kill many man-down situations, only giving up one garbage goal before the end of the game.
In an excellent show of ball control, the Cossacks were able to keep the ball for the last 3+ minutes of the game and run out the clock on their way to a hard earned 10-6 victory.
The game ball was awarded to Pat Ferguson for anchoring the Man-Down Defense which did not give up one goal during the game. Pat also made six of his eight saves in the 3rd and 4th quarter stopping a comeback effort by Arizona.
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Scoring Player Waller, Jerrod Crickmore, M.J. Horn, Ryan Flynn, Brett Fritz, Mike Wollert, Jason Alexander, Ben Hartley, Dallas Abbate, Blake Balser, Allen Burastero, Josh Team Total
Saves Player Ferguson, Pat Team Total
Face Offs Player Dennig, Matt Fritz, Mike Team Total