February 18, 2001 • Rohnert Park, CA - The first game of the season usually causes a good bit of anxiety. For the Sonoma State Cossacks lacrosse team, I'm guessing there was a little more than usual. First of all, Douglas Carl would be coaching his first game, replacing 3-time Western Collegiate Lacrosse League Coach of the Year John Hughes. Although Carl and Hughes agree on most ideas, there would be small adjustments.

Then, Pat Ferguson, one of the best goalies in the league, graduated and would need to be replaced.On top of that, M.J. Crickmore, last year's leading scorer, will miss the entire year due to a knee injury. Throw in 18 freshmen, a young defense, a muddy field, and a fired-up, scrappy bunch from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo--Could it be Pepto Bismol time?

Aaron Myers, a speedy defenseman from Cal Poly, opened the scoring to immediately put pressure on the #5 ranked team in the USLIA. Blake Abbate, a sophomore midfielder from Sonoma State, quickly answered to tie the game at one goal each. From that point on, the first quarter was a tough, hard hitting, groundball scooping battle. Each team would score another goal to end the first quarter at 2-all.

The second quarter started with a gift to CPSLO. One of the sticks from SSU was declared illegal,so the Mustangs had a 3-minute, unreleasable man advantage. Much to Cal Poly coach Marc Lea's dismay, his team failed to take advantage-- "Our man-up just wasn't connecting. The 3 minute unreleasable penalty, to not get any goals out of that really hurt us." One more goal from each team would close out the first half scoring for a 3-3 deadlock as time expired.

During half time, the Cal Poly players, muddy from the soggy field, were visibly excited and ready for the upset. One could understand their excitement, after losing 23-3 to Sonoma a year ago. Coach Lea: "I thought we really did well on the ground balls which kept us close in the first half. We probably had more shots than they did. We just weren't hitting the goal."

The second half would be quite different.

Sonoma State, in their navy helmets, shorts, and white jerseys, came out of the locker room with the assuredness of champions. This program wasn't undefeated in the league last year by default. It was time to turn up the heat.

Will Burson scored on a bouncer, and Jason Wollert also added a goal, to make it 5-3 Cossacks. By the time the third quarter was over, Sonoma had jumped out to a 10-5 lead. Cal Poly, facing relentless defensive pressure along with stellar goaltending, was starting to wear down. CPSLO coach Marc Lea: "We burned out a little bit. We were losing our speed. We weren't running through our offense as well as we should."

The fourth quarter was very close, but the damage had been done. Outscoring the Mustangs 4-3, Sonoma would ride their big 3rd quarter to a 14-8 victory--the first for coach Doug Carl. "I stepped into a great situation. John Hughes and Mike Annala had a good, very solid program. We didn't really need that much," stated the personable coach Carl. However, one area of immediate concern to the coach was his team's goalie situation. "Replacing a goalie is tough, but Jamie Refvem came up huge today. I had hoped to split time with our freshman, Dominic Gomez, but Jamie was too solid in the first half."