It’s hard to win in anything when you’re playing a man down, be it chess, checkers or lacrosse. The Cougar boys lacrosse team learned that first hand on Saturday morning at Underhill, losing to the Randolph Rams, 12-9.
Through the first three quarters the Cougars were in man down situations eight times, compared to just once for the Rams, and it absolutely made the difference in the game. Overall, Columbia went man down 11 times and the Rams converted three of them into goals, which un-coincidentally happened to be the margin of defeat.
While it’s tough to suggest that the officials were purposely making calls for the Rams, it was quite obvious that for whatever reason, the Cougars were on the short side of the whistle all game long. The boys did not get a single man-up opportunity until there were 57.7 seconds left in the third.
“Some of the penalties that they gave us were like, ‘you’re going to call a foul on that?’” said CHS head coach Dean Witty. “I have a Division three college sportsmanship award and I am not in the referee’s ear 99 percent of the time. I’ve been a referee, I kind of know the routine, I know the mechanics, and I’m kind of the referee’s friend. But boy these guys were shaky today.”
Even still, Columbia had a real chance to win the contest anyway, but a poor second half offensive performance doomed the boys’ chance at picking up their fourth win of the season.
With under five minutes left to go in the second quarter, Columbia’s Devon Good took his man to the net, one-on-one and fired it passed the keeper with a laser of a goal. The score put Columbia up 5-4, but from there, Randolph took control of the game and never relinquished it.
“I’m not too sure they know how to play with the lead,” Witty said. “I know that sounds silly, but on some level there could be some truth to that.”
The Rams won the ensuing draw and Gil Swenson cut across the net and fired one in for the game tying score. A wrap around goal at the 1:55 mark put Randolph up for good and then two more goals within the next 1:28 put the Rams up 8-5 with 27.7 seconds left to play.
As time expired, Columbia’s Dylan Henningburg scooped a groundball in front of the net and found the back of the net to bring the Cougars within two at halftime, seemingly with the momentum.
Brett Mangan opened the second half scoring for Columbia, coming from behind the net with a wrap around, with 9:30 left in the third quarter. But 28 seconds later Kevin Muller put Randolph back up by two. Columbia fought back once more and closed within one, when Mangan bounced a pass to Alec Ramos, who bounced the ball into the net, making the score 9-8 with 7:25 in the third. But just over a minute later, Randolph scored again.
Following Ramos’ goal, the Cougars were held scoreless for the next 17:30 of game time, while the Rams tacked on two more scores, before Austin Little broke through for a score with 1:55 to play, making the score 12-9.
“We don’t necessarily take care of the ball the way we should,” Witty said. “We tend to rush things when we shouldn’t and slow things down when we should be a little more urgent, and that’s true in a lot of different areas on the field.”
There was not much difference in possession in the game with the groundballs and draws relatively even throughout. There was some difference in goalie play, as Randolph’s Wes Odell made 12 saves, with six coming in the final 7:25 of play with Columbia trying to fight back from a four goal deficit. Columbia goalie, Matt Gardner made seven saves.
Ramos, Good and Henningburg each had two goals for Columbia, while Ralph Ibezim, Little and Mangan had one each. Randolph, which improved to 3-6, was led by four goals from Eric Smith.
The Cougars are now 3-8 and have lost six of their last seven contests. They are in action again on Monday against Arthur L. Johnson.
“We can beat anybody and I really believe that,” Witty said. “I’m still very affirmed that this is a good team. They don’t find ways to win, they find ways to lose.”
