Alex Urquhart
This weekend is the real start to the MCLA D2’s season with four of the top six teams in the country having games. Grand Valley St. has made a trip to the great state of Minnesota to take on #1 St. Thomas, #2 St. Johns, and #6 North Dakota St. Grand Valley, themselves, sits at #4 in the country. This weekend also has newly touted GRLC team Lindenwood-Belleville coming up from Illinois to take on the top three teams in the UMLC.
In the first game of the night at the Concordia University – St. Paul’s Seafoam Dome, The NDSU Bison took on the LBU Lynx. The Bison came out to an early lead in the game 5-1 and then laid on the power through the midfield going up 10-1 at the half. The Bison dominated the Lynx at the face off X winning close to 80 percent of the face offs. NDSU then took out many of its starters in favor of saving them for another game later in the evening against St. Olaf. In the second half the Lynx crawled back into the game and made for some great plays at both ends of the field. Unfortunately for the Lynx the Bison had made a large enough cushion in the first half to more or less coast to the final whistle. The Bison finished with a 18-10 win, the Bison also got a big win over conference foe St. Olaf later in the evening 32-4. LBU will play the St. Johns Johnnies today at 9:00 pm and then will play the St. Thomas Tommies tomorrow at 11:00 am. The Bison will have today off before taking on the Grand Valley St. Lakers on Sunday at 8:30 am.
In the second game at the Seafoam Dome the #2 St. Johns Johnnies took on the #4 Grand Valley St. Lakers, in the first top five tilt of the year. Prior to the game I got to chat with Lakers coach Tim Murray about his team and the prospect of playing three of the top teams in the country. Coach Murray said that this is what the team loves to do, referring to the early season games against the #1, #2, and #6 teams in the country. He also talked about how 26 of his 39 players are Freshmen and 31 of the of the 39 are either Freshmen or Sophomores, for the Lakers this youth has added depth to a team last year that did not have a ton of depth.
The game got underway at about 9:00 pm and was a thriller from start to finish. The game was a fight from the start and was a back and forth game until the third quarter. Before that the game went 3-3 after one and 6-6 at the half. In the third quarter the Johnnies jumped out in front of the Lakers 12-8. The Johnnies had a four-goal lead and would hang on to it for the rest of the game. The #2 Johnnies felled the youthful #4 Lakers 15-11 in a great game that lasted late into the night. The Johnnies were led by Jacob Helmer who had four goals and three assists for seven points on the night, while the Lakers were lead in points by Zack Grusell who had a hat trick and an assist for four points.
The Johnnies take on the LBU Lynx today at 9:00 pm and the Lakers take on the UST Tommies at 6:30 pm, both games are today at the Seafoam Dome in St. Paul.
