The CMU men’s club lacrosse team used a high-scoring offensive attack to win its season opener against Ferris State 21-6 on Friday at the Indoor Athletic Complex.

“It’s very important to be able to put in anybody and be able to count on them to put goals in the net,” said senior defenseman Andrew Tillman. “Tonight, we put up 21 goals and it was a team effort by everybody from top to bottom.”

CMU used a balanced attack; sophomore Jeff Wood scored five goals, sophomore Dane Woody scored two and sophomore Nick Culp scored two as well.

Despite a preseason October scrimmage between the two teams, it took almost half the first quarter for the first goal to be scored.

Ferris State scored first, but CMU responded with five unanswered goals and never looked back.

“I felt our effort was tremendous for all four quarters. The defensive intensity was there,” said CMU coach Brad Thomas. “We made mistakes, which will come in a first game, but they were full-speed mistakes, and it wasn’t like we were making half-speed mistakes. The players didn’t sulk about mistakes; they got after it and finished the play.”
CMU pressured Ferris State into mistakes; those allowed CMU to control the offensive tempo of the game.

“Everything was 100 percent, and I was very pleased with the effort,” Thomas said. “I couldn’t have asked for more out of these 31 guys tonight.”

CMU next plays at noon Saturday on the road against Adrian.

“I can’t even explain how important a win to begin the season is,” Thomas said. “We have a tough game next week against a Division-III school in Adrian. Then, we have our first top 25 opponent in two weeks, and it’s unbelievable to have momentum going into that.”

E-mail the author: John Manzo