The Sam Houston Bearkats handled business Saturday afternoon against the Stephen F. Austin State Lumberjacks in the team’s season opener at Pritchett Field. The Bearkats dominated the Lumberjacks by a final score of 20-2, outscoring SFA by 13 points at the half.
The Kats’ defense was the shining light in Saturday’s matchup as the team allowed one point in the first half and one point in the second half.
“It was a good game,” senior Bobby Quintos said. “I thought we played solid all the way through. Our defense stood on their head. We only allowed two points the whole game and one of them was in the last minute of the fourth quarter. It was a good experience for a lot of the new guys to get playing time.”
One of the rookies on the team is freshman Louis Butler. Butler felt that by him being new to the team, there was a lot of pressure on him and the other freshman to perform well.
“There is always pressure when you’re the new guy,” Butler said. “I can relate with Ryan [Graza] because we come out every day trying to prove ourselves, especially to those who have been playing the game longer than us. We just started, but to come out and compete with my teammates shows that we have promise in the coming seasons.”
Butler also felt that beating the Lumberjacks, one of SHSU’s biggest rivals, in the fashion that they did was satisfying.
“Any time you beat the school rival it is sweet,” Butler said. “Especially in the fashion we did.”
The Bearkats can thank the critics for their win. People around the league, including polls, predicted that this was going to be a “toss up game” in the Lumberjacks’ favor.
All the talk fired up the SHSU lacrosse team.
“There was some political talking going around on twitter, and the polls, with people saying it was going to be a toss up game,” senior Brendon Ianiero said. “We knew from the get-go that there was no way that was going to happen. We knew that we were going to come out from the start and take care of business. The fire was started.”
Quintos also believes the critics lit a fire under the team and helped them win.
“Some of the polls leading up to this game was saying this was going to be a toss up,” Quintos said. “So that left a bad taste in out mouths. We really wanted to come out here and prove a point in order to shut every one up around the league saying that we fell off.”
The Bearkats’ next opponent is on the road versus Texas A&M-Galveston. Assistant coach Matthew Hlavenka feels that in order for them to beat Galveston, they must correct their mistakes.
“We are going to take our mistakes from this game and work on them,” Hlavenka said. “There were some substitution errors and cardio, people need to work on their cardio. We are going to work on them this week in practice.”
The Bearkats next game will take place in Galveston on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.
