The Arizona men's lacrosse team finished the second game of its homestand with a 15-1 victory over Southern California yesterday, after battling both the Trojans and the elements.
The Laxcats had already staked out a 6-0 lead when a heavy downpour and lightning forced officials to call a rain delay with 4:43 left in the first period. The game resumed an hour later despite continuing rain, and Arizona finished the quarter with four straight goals.
Freshman attackman Christian Burrows led the Laxcats (10-3, 5-1 Western Collegiate Lacrosse League) with six points on five goals and one assist. Sophomore attackman Greg Polheber added three goals, while freshman attackman Shawn Furman chipped in two goals and an assist against the Trojans (1-9, 0-3).
Head coach Kenny Broschart said he was pleased with the team's aggressiveness.
"I think it's becoming our character to be like that," he said. "We're just continuing our style."
Rain forced both yesterday's game and Arizona's Saturday 16-7 victory over UC San Diego to be played at nearby Estevan Park. The Laxcats-Tritons contest began a couple of hours ahead of its scheduled 1 p.m. start because of worsening conditions.
Burrows led Arizona with four goals and an assist Saturday, while junior attackman Adam Paris added two goals and two assists for the Laxcats, who opened the game with a 7-0 run and a 10-2 advantage at halftime.
Attackman Nick Dean led San Diego (8-5, 1-3) with three goals and two assists.
Broschart was unsure whether Arizona would return to Murphy Stadium for tomorrow's 7 p.m. game against St. Mary's. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 60s today, with a high of 74 and partly cloudy skies tomorrow, according to weatherchannel.com.
"It was disappointing," Broschart said of the weekend rain. "We weren't able to work on as many things as would have liked to. But overall, everything worked out pretty well.
"Our strongest (point) is the ability to put the bad teams out early on."
Regardless of whether rain decides to make another cameo in the upcoming days, the Laxcats expect to keep the ball rolling against the Gaels (4-5, 2-0).
"We should be fine on Tuesday," Broschart said. "There shouldn't be any problems as long as we go out and play like we did (yesterday)."