No. 4 BYU men's lacrosse defeated Boise State Friday by a score of 14-6, improving to 2-0 on the season and handing the Broncos their second loss of the year on Boise's Recreation Turf Field.
Boise applied pressure to the BYU defense early in the rainy game, taking a 3-2 lead over the Cougars into the second quarter. Despite the early push from the Broncos, BYU head coach Matt Schneck was able to rally his team.
'Boise State came out very fast. Early on we struggled to match their intensity,' Schneck said. 'Once we started to pick up the speed of our game we were then able to change the direction of the momentum to be in our favor.'
BYU picked up the pace in the second quarter and began to take control of the game. With nine minutes left before the half, BYU midfielder Nick Stevens was set up nicely by attackman Christian Taylor for a goal. Taylor and BYU co-captain Zach Taylor added unassisted scores later in the quarter to put the Cougars up two. But a nice scoop and score by the Bronco attackman Josh Davenport narrowed the Cougar lead to one at halftime.
Boise came out strong in the second half, but solid defensive efforts from BYU's Jacob Folkerson helped BYU hold off the Broncos. Folkerson, a sophomore, was pleased with his team's ability to calm the game and finish strong.
'We had a couple of mistakes, but we ended the game strong,' Folkerson said. 'We started to get more ground balls in the second half, we forced them to play more of our game, and we settled down into our team's style of lacrosse.'
In the third quarter, three different Cougars netted a total of four goals, extending the BYU lead to 9-6 headed into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth, the Cougars dominated the game by scoring seven unanswered goals. The Broncos could not respond, and BYU won the game 14-6.
BYU is back in action Saturday, Feb. 16, against Simon Fraser.