This past Sunday, the San José State men’s club lacrosse team fell to California State University Long Beach in a 9-6 loss in its home opener.
Long Beach won the first face off to which they then lost possession in its transition down to offense.
Spartans defenders were able to come up with the ground ball and return it to their offense ultimately reaching Lukas Payne’s stick where he was able to crease-roll past Beach defenders scoring the first goal of the game in the first quarter.
Both SJSU and Long Beach came to the game with high intensity, keeping a tight score throughout the game.
Spartans Head Coach Derek De Lemos provides more insight on the history that these two programs have with each other.
“Over the years, we each had really small numbers. We play a hard, physical game and most of our games have been a two or three goal game. So it's back and forth. This is their fourth game of the season,” De Lemos said.
Long Beach dominated in the face off gaining the team multiple opportunities for them to have possession and score.
Spartan defenders played a zone defense only pressuring the ball when the Long Beach offense would try to infiltrate the eight-meter arch and shoot on Spartans goalie, Gavin Gannod.
Gannod was able to make a total of 14 saves throughout the game with having the most during the third quarter.
Gannod made a successful save against a shot from Long Beach successfully creating a transition play with defensive pole, Brayden Smith to then offensive man Max Oshetski who tied up the score after a shoulder check to create room.
Nearing the end of first quarter, Collin Fitzpatrick, SJSU defenseman stick checks a Long Beach player with possession resulting in the other players' stick to become unusable.
The Spartans took advantage of this and gained possession.
However, this possession did not last long as Fitzpatrick’s pass was intercepted by a Beach player who took it down to goal ending the first quarter with Beach having a 3-2 lead.
Fitzpatrick shared from a defensive standpoint what the Spartans can work on moving forward.
“We need to communicate better. I think defensively we made our mistakes, but just hammering down our plays and making sure we know what to do in certain situations will help us move forward throughout our season,” said Fitzpatrick.
Throughout the second and third quarter of the game, Long Beach continued to dominate in the face offs and ball possessions ultimately allowing them to have more opportunities to shoot on goal.
Spartans shot on goal 21 times only making 6 of those shots behind the net.
When Spartans had possession during the third quarter, Beach defenders responded with high pressure defense with several defenseman checking and body blocking and Spartans trying to create opportunities to shoot on goal.
At the end of the third quarter, the Spartans were falling behind 6-4.
Similar to the previous two quarters, Beach continued to dominate in the possession game but that did not stop the Spartans.
After a goalie save from the Gannod , SJSU was quick to take advantage of their opportunity allowing for a quick transition from goalie Preston Vana to Oshetski and finishing the transition with Ryder Smith making a shot on goal that made the back of the net.
Vana gave some insight on the energy of the team despite the loss.
“I was really proud of the effort that the team put out. It felt like they really wanted it, and we all came together as a team. I'm really happy with what I saw today. I think we got places to go and we are just starting,” Vana said.
While Oshetski and Hunter Dietrich both lead the team with the most goals scored individually, it was not enough to bring the Spartans from a deficit ending the game with a 9-6 Spartan loss.
As mentioned earlier, this is Beach's fourth game while this was the Spartans first game of the season. They have already started to identify what they can work on in the upcoming practices before their next game.
SJSU men’s lacrosse club team will be on the road this Sunday against Saint Mary’s College.
