MISSOULA, MT – On Saturday, March 27th, the Missoula Elite Men’s Varsity team fell 7 – 2 to Sandpoint High School in their first game of the season. Sandpoint opened the scoring midway through the 1st quarter with 2 goals before attackman Lance Altmaier (SR, Hellgate) bull dodged his way to the net and notched MEL’s first goal of the 2010 season late in the 1st. Sandpoint put together a solid 2nd quarter, holding MEL to only 4 shots and no goals. They also scored twice in the quarter and held a 4 – 1 advantage heading into the half.

Midfielder Brandon Roose (JR, Sentinel) scored his 1st career goal to kick things off in the 3rd quarter before the Sandpoint longpoles clamped down. Sandpoint’s balanced attack would continue to find holes in the MEL defense in the 3rd as they again chipped in 2 goals, stretching their advantage to 6 – 2 heading into the 4th.

The short MEL bench seemed to take effect in the final quarter as there were numerous missed opportunities for the offense. Dropped passes in front of the goal and poor communication on ground balls led the team to generate only 2 shots in the final quarter, which would not be nearly enough to have a chance to come back.

Defensively the squad was again anchored by goaltender Rian Tuttle (SR, Hellgate) and defender Joel Colbert (SR, Hellgate). Tuttle registered 12 saves on the day, many at point blank range, and Colbert registered a game high 7 ground balls to go along with his 3 forced turnovers.

Overall the team learned a lot from their first game. Thank you to all the fans who came out to support the guys on another beautiful day for lacrosse in Missoula!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 9:54 am and is filed under Men's Varsity, zFeatured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.