Lamon’s Lamentations: PNCLL Division 2 Week Two Preview
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By Casey Lamon
Photo by Will Moss
In something that has become all too familiar throughout the MCLA, University of the Pacific decided to withdraw from their out of conference trip to the University of Portland and Willamette University at the last minute. Obviously, the MCLA has come to accept teams canceling games for no bigger punishment than a slap on the wrist to be implemented (except for Simon Fraser University’s seeding in the 2009 national tournament). Because of this, the amount of PNCLL D-II games have been cut down to just two for this week.
The first game takes place Saturday as Western Washington continues its PNCLL D-IA tour by traveling north to play Simon Fraser at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. Western Washington comes off a five-goal upset of Washington, wherein they were lead by four-point performances by senior midfielder Cody Bludorn (4g) and senior attack Sean Finley (1g, 3a) as well as two-point performances from sophomore midfielder Colin Gaddy (2g) and junior attack Bandon Morris (1g, 1a). The Vikings will need another strong performance out of Ian LaBelle (15s, 6ga) and the rest of the Viking defense to slow down Simon Fraser’s trio of MCLA D-I All-Americans: Adam Foss, Russell Thomas and Ben Towner. Another Western Washington upset would prove the Vikings as a national powerhouse and a strong national championship contender.
The second matchup of the weekend takes place in Portland as Willamette University travels to play at PNCLL D-IAA opponent Portland State. This is the first regular season meeting between the two teams that finished last season with a combined record of 6-21. Willamette returns their top five leading scorers from the 2009 season, including sophomore attack Ian McAnnis (40g, 18a), junior attack Addam Fishel (40g, 5a) and junior midfielder Jake Horacek (15g, 19a).
For Willamette, the biggest question mark is how their young and unproven defense, lead by freshmen Sean Harding (The Calverton School, MD) and Ivan Ferguson (Kamiak High School, WA), will fare against a Portland State Viking offense that scored only 5.75 goals per game a year ago. While Willamette relies heavily on their incoming freshmen, there is no bigger freshman name in this game than two-time high school All-American goalie Andrew Parker, who has now been officially placed on the 2010 Portland State roster. Both teams are looking to get out of the bottom of their respective barrels and this game is a strong indication of how each team has progressed in the off-season.
Casey Lamon is an aspiring writer located in the great northwest and will be blogging on the news and notes throughout the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League’s Division II this season on CollegeLAX.
