SHSU Lacrosse

Sam Houston State Wins 3rd Consecutive LSA Championship

May 3rd, 2012

College Station, TX: A strong wind blew across the Southwest plains this weekend past as an invader marched out of the swamps & bayous entering into the Great State of Texas. This group of young Cajun’ stickers marched into College Station determined to bring the Lone Star Alliance Division II Championship to Louisiana.

The Ragin’ Cajun’s of the University of Louisiana – Lafayette dispatched the Hilltoppers of St. Edwards in the LSA Semi-Finals 14-3 and set their sites on the two time defending LSA Champion Sam Houston State. The young Cajun’s fresh off an impressive but close loss to Texas A&M were loaded to hunt “Bearkat.”

Sam Houston State who enjoyed a 22-1 semi-final victory over UTSA jumped out to a 3-1 first quarter lead on appearing to be heading towards an easy victory. At the beginning of the second quarter the Ragin’ Cajun’s caught fire like a pot of boiling crawfish scoring 3 quick goals taking a 4–3 lead at the 11:34 mark of the second quarter. The ULL fans were chanting “Remember the Alamo” mocking the Texan defeat in the War of Texas Independence while displaying their Louisiana pride. After a time out, Bearkats Zach Fry, Travis Tabb, & Logan Holmes came out with full guns blazing like their namesake General Sam Houston scoring 5 unanswered goals and settling for a 9-5 lead at half time.

ULL’s Ashton Langlinais placed a blazing shot in the upper left corner at the 11:07 mark of the 3rd quarter to cut the Sam Houston lead to 9-6. But then the Cajun guns fell silent as a result of the intimidating Bearkat defense lead by John Messer, Evan Freed, Tyler Tyson, & Goalie Mike Candler. As General Sam Houston blitzed Santa Anna’s Mexican troops this same week 176 years ago, Michael Mann, Brendan Gawronski, and Matthew Mann lead the charge as the Bearkats scored 10 consecutive goals to close out the 19-6 victory for Sam Houston State and clinching their third straight LSA Championship.

The 13-2 Bearkats travel next to the MCLA National Championships in Greenville, SC the week of May 14 – 19.

Announcement, Playoffs, Team News

KATS Go 1-1 at Nationals!

May 17th, 2010

St Thomas – 22Â Sam Houston – 3

It’s very humbling when you lose a game (22-3) by the score you beat your divisional opponents by.Â It’s a little easier to swallow when it’s the #1 ranked team and two-time National Champions the “Tommies” from St. Thomas University.Â “Wow!” Said Coach Fritts!Â “Very impressive ball club and absolutely eye-opening for the entire team.Â It (22-3 loss) is exactly what the doctor ordered for us!Â We have a much better idea of what and where we need to train for next season to compete better at the national level.”

Scoring the three goals for Sam Houston were Wil Nielsen (unassisted); Nick Williams assisted by Zach Fry and Alex Badour (unassisted).

Sam Houston – 11Â Missouri State – 9

In the consolation game, Sam Houston played much better!Â Donny Meyer and Austin Atwood dominated face offs going 14/16 and 5/6 respectively.

But the big story was Freshman Attackman Brendan Gawronski who netted 6 goals and assisted on one other.Â “Brendan just kept finding the soft spots in their defense and as much as he found them, his teammates found Brendan as all 6 goals had an assist tied to them! His hands were quick and ‘soft’ this game.Â Every pass that came in contact with him, he finished it.”Â In fact, only one goal that game (Badour) was unassisted.Â “When 50% of your goals are tied to an assist, you feel good about a TEAM effort.Â When 10 goals out of 11 have an assist… you just shake your head in total bewilderment.Â THAT is total TEAM ball” said Fritts.

Besides Gawronski, other scorers on the day were Wil Nielsen (2g/3a); Logan Holmes (1g/1a); Zach Fry (1g/2a); Alex Badour (1g/1a) and Nick Williams (1a).

The KATS are done for the year!Â Overall record is 11-3 and we’ll sit and wait for the year end polls to come out and see where the Kats end up.

2008: 0-8 record

2009: 6-5 and a Conference Championship appearance

2010: 11-3; Undefeated Conference Champions and 1-1 at the nationals in Denver, Colorado

Playoffs, Team News

National Bracket Announcedâ€¦ #16 Sam Houston vs #1 St Thomas!

May 2nd, 2010

The MCLA Division II national playoff bracket was just announce Sunday night and the Bearkats get the final seed (#16) and play the defending national champion Tommies of St. Thomas (St Paul, MN).

Coach Fritts had this to say… “I was in bed when I got the phone call about the bracket.Â Looked it up online myself and then started putting the scout report on St. Thomas together.Â We’re not the same team that lost to Kennesaw State in March.Â The guys are much more patient and we’re hitting on all 6 cylinders.Â The loss to Texas Tech was one we felt we should have kept the ‘W’ and the win over Texas A&M proves that we can play with some of the best talent in the country.Â Our DI schedule this year served its purpose… to prepare us for the tough competition at nationals.”

The game is scheduled for 10am on Tuesday, May 11, 2010.Â Â Field assignment at Dicks Sporting Goods Park is not known at this time.

Announcement, Event, Playoffs, Team News