Club lacrosse beats No. 19 Indiana, sweeps weekend games

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CMU club lacrosse coach Brad Thomas challenged his team to start faster in its two games over the weekend.

It responded with two victories, including a 12-3 win over No. 19 Indiana on Sunday.
Central, which also beat Ball State 14-6 on Saturday, led after the first quarter in both games.

Thomas said Sunday’s win was the first game his team put together a 60-minute performance. CMU led 2-0 at the end of the first quarter and 6-1 at halftime.

“The team was more focused as we came out and took it to them,” Thomas said.
For the second consecutive game, the third quarter was CMU’s best, as it scored nine goals and allowed just one.

Thomas said the offense worked harder than before to get quality shots.
Junior attacker Justin Schaufler had six goals, giving him 11 for the weekend and 22 on the season.

“He (Schaufler) did a great job finishing,” Thomas said. “We got him into spots where he could finish. He is a smarter lacrosse player than people might know.”

Sophomore attacker Jeff Wood added a pair of goals and three assists. Sophomore midfielder Nick Culp had a season-high with three goals and one assist. Senior midfielder David Rivard had five assists, totaling nine on the weekend.

Tillman said it was CMU’s best defensive game of the year as well.

“We were sliding, talking, and (we) worked as a unit,” he said. “… This was the biggest two wins of the season for us. This is a good momentum push into the playoffs.”

CMU has to win its last two divisional games against Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan to get into the playoffs, starting with Western Michigan on Friday.

SATURDAY

CMU (3-5) got off to another quality start Saturday, leading 4-2 after the first quarter.

The team executed its offense and did a good job of forcing turnovers, Thomas said.

And after taking a 9-3 halftime lead, Thomas wanted more.

“I challenged the defense at halftime to get a shutout and get after ground balls in the second half,” he said.

The defense responded to the challenge and shut out Ball State while the offense scored three more to extend the lead to 12-3.
Thomas said the third quarter was his team’s best, by far.
“We got more aggressive and forced more turnovers on top off shutting them out,” he said.
Both goalies split equal time. Junior James Latini got the start, stopping seven shots and allowing three goals. Junior Sean Coates played the second half and stopped six shots, allowing three goals.
The offense was led by Schaufler and Wood as they combined to score more than half the team’s goals. Wood had four goals and Schaufler led the way with five. Rivard chipped in with four assists.
“The offense ran its sets, found open teammates and finished,” said senior defenseman Andrew Tillman.