Utah attackman Josh Stout led the No. 1 University of Utah Men’s lacrosse team to an 18-8 victory over the Washington Huskies on Saturday at Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City.
Utah scored first at the 9:51 mark when Stout found space on a feed by midfielder Aaron Fjeldsted. The Utes had nice ball movement which led to Stout finding the far pipe for the goal. Thirty-one seconds later found midfielder Jake Stout the back of the net after getting his hands free after spinning towards the center of the field on a right alley dodge. Midfielder Reid Lanigan scored his first goal of the game at the 8:47 mark on a step down from the right wing to give the Utes three goals in just over a minute of time. The Utes continued to push and play well, scoring four more goals in the first quarter. Josh Stout notched two while midfielder Cam Redmond and attackman Bo Powell each had a goal.
The Stout brothers connected on the next Utah goal when Jake Stout took the ball up top then faked a scoop pass and found his brother Josh on the wing who stepped down and scored. Washington notched its first goal of the game at the 7:12 mark in the second quarter to make the score 8-1. Utah reeled off three more goals when attackman Cole Watson, attackman Luke Graney, and midfielder Liam Cavanaugh-Fernandez scored for the Utes. Washington scored at the 39 second mark but Jake Stout answered just 17 seconds later for the Utah goal, making the score at the intermission, 12-2 for the Utes.
The second half was an even match as both teams scored six goals. The third quarter saw Washington score twice but each time Utah answered right back. Utah opened the fourth quarter with two quick goals, one by Watson and one by midfielder Dalton Ziegler. The Huskies didn’t give up despite the margin and snowy conditions as they scored two straight goals as well, making the score 16-6 midway through the final frame. Midfielder Gus Colonna and Josh Stout scored within 22 seconds to quickly increase the lead for the Utes but the Huskies would score the final two goals of the game, leading to an 18-8 final score.
“We’re at the halfway point and we’ve done a really good job during the first half of the season,” said Utah head coach Brian Holman. “Now the goal is to build off that and fix some things. We haven’t had a lot of practices lately and I think that showed in the last few games, but all of these things are fixable.”
Josh Stout finished with six goals and 1 assist. Fjeldsted had 5 assists for the Utes. Watson finished with 2 goals and 2 assists while Colonna and Jake Stout each had 2 goals and an assist. The Utah face-off crew had another solid game, winning 22 of 28. Utah successfully cleared 10 times out of 12 opportunities.
The Utes will take a few days off for spring back before getting back to work. The next game will be on March 30 against NCAA D-II Westminster. After the showdown with the Griffins, the Utes will enter Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference play with a home game against the Utah State Aggies on April 5.
“All of our goals are still in front of us,” said Holman. “We’re going to back to work after spring break and then push forward.”
Be sure to follow all the action on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).
