Griffins Soar and Capture First Division 2 Title in Just Second Season
Courtesy collegelax.us
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IRVING, Texas (May 17, 2008) - The number one seeded Westminster Griffins built a 9-2 first half lead and never looked back en route to a 17-10 drubbing of the second seeded Grand Valley State Lakers.
They say that the griffin is a magical creature in ancient mythology, possessing both the head and wings of and eagle and the body of a lion, it commanded respect. Those body parts played significant roles in the folklore of the creature as its entire body as composed of parts from the king of the terrestrial beasts and the ruler of the skies. The Westminster lacrosse team, just like its mascot, demanded that same respect on the lacrosse field. The griffin was often rumored to guard throne and treasure rooms in ancient Crete. Again, how fitting of a name, as Westminster was on a mission to defend it’s year long seat at the top of the MCLA Division 2 polls.
Westminster jumped all over GVSU from the opening whistle, racing out to 3-0 lead and 4-1 at the end of the first quarter. The lead increased to 10-3 at half. But you could bet that the lessons learned from Westminster’s semifinal game on Friday were reiterated at halftime as the Lakers managed to claw their way back to 14-10 with ten minutes to go, in much the say way Dayton did in the semifinals.
“We played hard all four quarters but Grand Valley is a good team and they kept coming back at us. I was glad for our big lead,” explained Westminster assistant coach David Long, who was running the Griffins’ ship due to the absence of head coach Mason Goodhand, who was attending his son’s college graduation.
2008 was just the second year of the Westminster program. In two short seasons the program has never fallen short of making the semifinals, and more amazingly, have won their first national title in just their second year.
Sophomore Roman Schoewe had a monstrous day, no pun intended, netting six goals en route to earning player of the game and all-tournament honors.
“We definitely wanted to make a statement today. We were number one the whole season and we wanted to show everyone why we were number.”
His teammate, midfielder James Brand, one of the few seniors on the Griffins’ roster, turned in an impressive game of his own (2g, 3a), also earning all tourney honors, but was more concerned about the team’s result and the respect earned.
“It would have been empty to come away from this without a championship today. A lot of people have been talking that we didn’t play anyone [this season] and that we may have not deserved to be here. We have been working just hard as anybody and we have done what we needed to do stay up there [in the polls]. We wanted to come out on top at the end.”
Westminster Helmet RightWith a title in year two, where does Westminster go from here? Are they ready to make the jump to Division 1 like their Division 2 champion predecessors, San Diego and Montana? After reflecting on this afternoon’s accomplishment, Long offered some thoughts.
“I know that whole situation has crossed Coach Goodhand’s mind, it doesn’t cross mine a whole lot,” laughed Long after the championship.
“I have heard the debate. I guess when the MCLA decides if the split is a big school/small school thing or if it’s a developmental thing. That’s when the decision will be made. I guess when that decision is made that we’ll just go along. I am not a decision maker with that. I am just happy to be here. I just love coaching lacrosse, whether it’s D-1 or D-2. If they make a D-3 I’ll be happy to coach there too.”
That’s a discussion for the future but for now we should offer our own respect for the king of the MCLA Division 2 beasts.
