Mar. 29th, 2004 - No. 6 Arizona routs No. 18 Loyola Marymount
By Woo-Jin Shim
WCLL Correspondent
Los Angeles, CA In a battle for possible playoff positioning in the WCLL South A Division, the Arizona Wildcats manhandled an up and coming LMU Lions squad, 15-5.
Arizona's attackman Adam Paris recorded six goals and three assists while an impressive Wildcats' defense found a way to shutdown LMU's high scoring offense for the entire game. The sixth-ranked Wildcats completely dominated the Lions from the opening face-off till the final whistle.
"They beat us on groundballs and face-offs. And for most the game, they showed they were hungrier than we were," said LMU head coach Pete Ginnegar.
Arizona outgained LMU on groundballs (63-43), shots on goal (45-18), and face-offs (11-18). The Lions' inability to clear against a strong riding scheme by the Wildcats mainly attributed to the lack of offensive opportunities for the LMU's offense. Ginnegar's squad failed to clear on fifteen of their first twenty clearing attempts.
Arizona took an early 3-0 lead when goalie Charlie Salemi hustled his way across the field with the ball on a clear and buried a shot on the bottom right corner of LMU's goal to give his team a 3-0 lead at the 8:15 mark in the opening quarter.
In the second quarter, the Wildcats began its onslaught of goals against a LMU defense that seemed to have little answers against Arizona's run and gun offense. Midfielder Greg Polheber took the opening face-off in the second half and dished out a great looking assist Paris to make the score 5-0. The Wildcats would add four more goals within the next nine minutes to give themselves a 9-0 lead.
While Arizona's offensive game plan seemed to be working to perfection, LMU's offense looked overmatched against an aggressive group of Wildcats defensemen. Longpole midfielder Tim McCall held WCLL's top score Jon Wiley to zero points in first half and close defensemen Carson Palmey, Bryan Cox, and Dan Young swarmed the Lions' attack unit with strong take-away checks. The four defensemen's ball handling ability also led to many fastbreak opportunities for the Wildcats' offense.
"Our defense played really well together," stated Arizona's team leader Tom Wiley. "Our goalie (Charlie Salemi) got them pumped up before the game and it really showed in the way they played today."
When the Wildcats began the second half with two quick goals, Salemi's backup Greg Abdouch took over Arizona's goaltending duties for the remainder of the game.
Even with their entire roster rotating in and out of the game, the Wildcats continued to curve through the Lions defense for open shots opportunities. LMU's goalie Bruce Brown saved the Lions from suffering a bigger embarrassment to their division rivals. The senior goalkeeper continued to shout encouragements to his defense through out the game and made ten amazing pointblank saves in the second half. Even till the last minute, fans were still able to hear Brown talking his defense through their slides and checks.
"Offensively, we couldn't find ourselves," said Ginnegar. "We broke down several times on defense, but if wouldn't have happened if we would have had more success on offense. We got a lot of work cut out for us. After watching Arizona go up against Chapman, we felt we could upset them. But we didn't count on our offense not producing today. Arizona deserves a lot of credit. They are the number six team in the nation, and they are definitely worthy of their ranking."
With consecutive victories against LMU and Chapman, Arizona looks to be in a good position to claim the second seed in the WCLL South Division playoffs.
"Coming into this game, we had LMU well scouted," commented Arizona's first year head coach Ken Broschart. "Our defense started off slow this season, but as of late, they've been coming along well and our team as a whole has been starting to pick it up. This year, we've decided pride ourselves on groundballs and clears. Our concept is to play harder in areas that not many people pay attention to in the box score."
Game Notes: Former Arizona star/USLIA All-American Bryan Moore is serving as an assistant coach for the Wildcats
Many of Arizona's family members and friends were in attendance, including former Wildcats all star Dan Price, who currently resides in Los Angeles
Former USC standout Josh Mele was also in the stands
Arizona will make a short journey up Interstate 405 to play the UCLA Bruins on Monday March 29th at 1 PM
LMU will face Coach Ginnegar's former team in the USC Trojans' on March 30th at 7 PM. Ginngar led the Trojans to a WCLL Division B championship title in 2002 before taking over head coaching duties with the Lions in 2003.
Box Score:
Arizona: 4 5 3 3 = 15
LMU: 0 0 2 3 = 5
Arizona Scoring: Paris 6g 3a, Polheber 2g 3a, Lochridge 4g, Luna 1g 1a, Crawford 2a,
Wiley 1g, Peter 1a
LMU Scoring: Garrard 2g 1a, Wiley 1g 1a, Lusardi 1g, Kelly 1g, Mosher 1a
Saves: Arizona 7 (Salemi 3, Abdouch 4), LMU 15 (Brown)
Face-offs: Arizona 10/18
Man-up: Arizona 1-2, LMU 0-3
Officials: Duggan, Ergin, Hague
Attendance: 70