The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Finishing season on the road this weekend
[ by Than Acuff ]It was quite the sendoff for the Crested Butte Titans senior lacrosse players at the final home game of their high school careers as the Titans rolled to a 14-3 win over the St. Mary’s Pirates on Friday, April 26 with seven of the 10 seniors getting on the scoresheet.
Given it was Senior Night, the coaching staff went with all seniors to start the game including three who just started playing lacrosse this season. Regardless of the new lineup, the Titans opened the game rattling off five goals in the first quarter starting in the fourth minute as AJ Hegeman beat his man to score. A little over a minute later defenseman Weston Miller took the ball nearly the length of the field to score and then Jack Pierson scored the Titans’ third goal of the quarter soon after.
Riley Davis then fed Luke Walton on the doorstep for a 4-0 Titans’ lead and Ty Pulliam dished to Pierson 25 seconds later to finish the opening outburst off for a 5-0 lead.
“They came out hot and did great,” says coach Carter Brock.
“It was a really fun experience and worked perfectly because we had exactly 10 seniors,” says senior captain Riley Davis.
The coaches stuck with their focus on getting seniors time in the final home game and the Titans continued to pour it on scoring five more goals in the second quarter. Walton started it off three minutes into the quarter. Fraser Birnie won the ensuing faceoff and carried the ball to goal to feed Cy Davis for a goal. Riley then assisted Cy for his second goal of the game a minute later, Birnie scored and Riley finished it off with a roll dodge to the cage and scored for a 10-0 Titans’ lead at halftime.
“We wanted to keep the seniors on the field and their energy kept us going in the game,” says Brock.
The senior party continued to open the third quarter as Grady Dietrich, who just started playing lacrosse this year, scored. Classmate and defenseman Trey Smolen then scored before St. Mary’s got on the board. With their goalie resorting to long passes every time he had the ball, the ploy worked for the next two goals but both Birnie and Dietrich each scored before the Titans gave up one last goal to St. Mary’s putting the finishing touches on a senior-led 14-3 Titans win.
“It was a great way to end our last home game of the season, the few we had,” says Brock.
“Senior Night was super special, a lot of those guys I have been playing with since before middle school so it’s a super awesome thing I get to share with them,” adds Riley. “It was also cool to see a lot of guys score goals who normally don’t score as much, the scoring was very spread out between players which was fun for the team.”
Crested Butte will finish out the season on the road as they face Middle Park on Friday, May 3 and remain on the Front Range to play Denver North on Saturday.
“Middle Park is going to be a tough game,” says assistant coach Alex Solomon. “They are very fast and very athletic. We have to play stout defense and match their speed.”
The Denver North game is expected to play out much like the St. Mary’s game.
“They’re a growing program,” says Brock. “We will have a challenge on Friday and then hopefully cruise to a season finale victory on Saturday.”
