LSA Champs
By Austin Wall
Dallas, TX -- The Aggies headed into LSA championship weekend at Texas Stadium with high hopes of putting an exclamation point on their undefeated conference season. After much time off for practice, the Aggies felt like coach Scazzero and Hanrahan had given them the tools necessary to bring home the title.
Friday night saw the Aggies pitted against an always hard fighting North Texas team who they had beat earlier in the year by a 4 goal margin. A&M was quick to jump out on top, commanding the first quarter with a score of 3-0. North Texas was able to rebound however and sent the game into halftime with the Aggies up 4-2. North Texas felt that if they could stay close down the stretch they might have a chance to pull a victory out from under Texas A&M. The Mean Green did just that, matching the Aggies 3 goal third quarter with 3 goals of their own. The fourth quarter saw much drama take place. UNT’s Zac Gutierrez brought the game within one goal with a little under 14 minutes to play. A&M answered with a two goal run to put the game at 9-6 with 7:30 left. UNT then brought the game again within one goal with a two goal run. With 1:30 left in the game A&M’s Joey Saladino was flagged for an illegal body check, putting the Aggies man-down defense on the field to try and secure the win. After many UNT shots that were either forced errant of saved by goaltender Jason Jolly, the Aggies committed another penalty to put them two man down with 45 seconds left in the game. After successfully killing both penalties with no goals allowed, the Aggies ran out the clock to secure a bid in the championship game.
Saturday night saw a rematch from last years LSA Final, which pitted arch rivals Texas A&M versus Texas. The game started out as a defensive struggle. Both teams successfully ran good offense with long possessions and good shot opportunities but were unable to capitalize on them. The halftime score saw the Aggies down 3-4 to the underdog Longhorns. The Aggies were able to refocus their efforts during the halftime break and came out to post a 5 goal quarter which seemed to stun the Longhorns who only scored one. The Aggies never looked back from that point. The fourth quarter produced 2 more goals for the Aggies while once again holding the Longhorns to 1 goal in a quarter. The Aggies, for the second time this season exhibited their dominance over the Longhorns and captured the 2008 LSA Championship.
This championship marks the second in a row for the Aggies who have not lost a conference game in the past two seasons. The Aggies will move on to the National Tournament where they hope to cash in on this years hard work.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
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