The weekend before Halloween weekend, the University of California Davis held its annual fall ball tournament. Lucky for me, a junior transfer, it just so happened that the Boise State Broncos were heading south to California once again. We weren’t the only ones, other good competition like Diablo Valley CC, Sonoma State, Cal Poly, and Santa Barbara CC made their way to Davis for a weekend of lacrosse!
After two long months of practice, the Broncos were ready to see some new faces and gauge the team’s progress. The moral was high and we were ready to make an early statement. UC Davis was up first.
UC Davis
The game started off a little slow and you could tell guys were still getting their legs going. Once balls started hitting the back of the net, they didn’t stop for the Blue.
Consistent scoring and solid defense led to a final score of 20-3. With the boost of confidence, were ready to take on the next opponent, Santa Barbara City College.
Santa Barbara City College
Santa Barbara City College was the next challenge and the first junior college squad that we had to face.
With games only formatted as 2, 20 minutes running halves, there wasn’t any room for error. Thanks in large part to the lights-out SBCC goalie, the game was 3-1 at half in favor of the Broncos.
Right as the second half fired up, the Broncos continued to dominate the time of possession, making the right decisions to cruise to a 10-2 victory.
Chico State
It was now Chico State we had to turn our focus to. After the first two games, there was a little less gas in the tank and the Broncos struggled a little bit, only leading 2-1 at half.
While the defense maintained a firm grip, the stumbles continued for the offense against Chico, they were only able to notch three more goals for a final score of 5-1. Three games down, we were set to face the toughest competition of the weekend.
Sonoma State
Sonoma State was on the clock and they weren’t going down easily. The offense came out guns blazing and were able to jump out to an early 4-0 Bronco lead. Clicking on all cylinders in the first half, the Blue and Orange rolled into halftime with a 5-2 lead.
The game took a turn for the worse in the 2nd half. Sonoma’s high pressure ride, along with a handful of other errors, the Broncos had allowed them to get back into the game.
Both sides battle back and forth and was locked at 7-7 in the final minutes. The Broncos went to the box for a late penalty and Sonoma was able to capitalize, handing us out first loss of the weekend with a final score of 8-7.
Cal Poly
Our scrimmage with Cal Poly immediately followed the Sonoma loss. This gave our boys a chance to redeem ourselves from the last game. Trailing 2-1 at half, the Broncos were started to look gasses and desperately needed energy. Senior attackman and backbone of the club Adam Smith had the answer. Adam scored the next three goals of the game and assisted on the fourth to freshman Jake Braden.
Along with quality team defense and a roll from the offense, we were were able to finish the game, and the weekend, with the 6-3 win over Cal Poly.
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With a final record of 4-1 on the weekend, the team and coaching staff were pleased with the outcome of our fall trip to California. Although the record was positive, our guys know that there is plenty of work to be done before the regular season campaigns kicks off in the spring!
