Fort Collins, CO – Two days after defeating #5 Oregon 8-4 in an emotional contest on Tuesday, the #3 Colorado State Rams took on visiting #13 Cal Poly on Thursday afternoon, beating the Mustangs by an identical 8-4 margin on a cool and crisp afternoon at Colorado State University. The Rams jumped out to a 6-0 lead midway through two quarters and proceeded to cruise the rest of the way, though not without their share of struggles and a good showing by Cal Poly. In the end, CSU’s strong defensive effort propelled them to their eighth victory on the season.
Much like the Oregon game on Tuesday, CSU scored in the first minute of the game to give them a lead they would never relinquish. The defense kept Cal Poly off of the scoreboard for the first 27:31 of the game before Poly’s Matt Anderson scored the first of his 2 goals later in the second quarter. By that time, the Rams had slowly marched out to their 6-0 lead. Much of the rest of the game was relatively sloppy on both ends, but Poly simply could not generate enough offense to seriously contend on the afternoon.
The Rams were led by freshman Cooper Kehoe (Robert Louis Stevenson HS; CA), whose 3 goals and 1 assist led all scorers. Sophomore Andrew Stein (Columbine HS; CO) shut down Cal Poly’s All-American attackman Seth Kweller, holding the talented scorer to just 1 assist on the day. Stein continues to impress as the leading cover man for the Rams.
Cal Poly won the face-off battle, taking 8/14 draw attempts on the day, but the Rams won in every other statistical category, including a 45-31 edge in groundballs. Each team had over 20 turnovers. Anderson’s 2 goals led the Mustangs, who also got 1 goal and 1 assist from Andrew Haviland. Senior Ben Wallace (Thomas Jefferson HS; CO) added 2 goals for the Rams.
Colorado State (8-2) faces its first league test of the season on Saturday as the Utah Utes come to town for an RMLC tilt. Utah beat CSU 4-3 in 2003 in their only win in series history and have proven to be a worthy opponent in the challenging RMLC. Cal Poly (6-5) heads back to California to complete WCLL play before their postseason starts in late April.
