Mavs Burnt Red
St. John’s entered the SPC Championship weekend on the heels of their own “Chubs” open, a lacrosse golf team tournament held on the fairways of Finnegan and Caven Fields. The 6-hole layout set up a record number of 21 posted by Caldwell Flores, Walker Hobby, Walt Baker, and Ryan Eisenman. 2009 was the inaugural tournament held during the swine flu hiatus and won by Reed Daniel, Aaron Foote, and Blake Upchurch. Names of the winners are "engraved" on the plaque crafted by assistant coach, Jack Daniel. The name of the tournament is taken from the teaching pro played by Carl Weathers, in “Happy Gilmore,” a road trip favorite flick.
Going into the SPC tournament the mode was to be ready, relaxed, and in a finishing frame of mind when the wheels rolled to Austin, and the Mavericks game plan was working to a T as in The University of Texas. Earlier in the day, St. John’s toured the “Tex” Moncrief Center at DKR Memorial Stadium. Slogans on the storied hallways, weight room and locker room were filled with inspiring memorabilia. “What I Give I Have, What I Kept I Lost.” “Do Your Job.” “Win It With Team.” “Never Give In…” “Dream It. Plan It. Do It.” Trophies were everywhere encased in glass boxes. Colt McCoy was framed in a sequence of recent winning poses, and what was not on the walls were on foot. UT players including the real McCoy, Jordan Shipley and SPC’s own, Sam Acho, brushed by the Mavericks who were in awe of their surroundings.
In the first quarter the Mavs had done their homework by reading the writing on the walls. They did their job, played as a team, and gave their all. With poles crashing the face off, St. John’s capitalized on transition opportunities early. John Ytterberg stuck the first goal of the game off the face at the 10:30 mark to give St. John’s an early lead. Clay Callaway also created a score from the defensive side of the field on a clear and hit Jordan Schuler for the Mav’s second score to make it 2-2 at the end of the first. Chris Gow scored an unassisted goal to make it 3-4 Mavs, with ESD’s attack unit of Wagley, Smith, and Klamer accounting for their first 4 scores. All was in place for St. John’s to stay the course and take dead aim on the Eagles, but two ESD scores with less than a minute remaining in the half tripped up the Maverick’s momentum.
In the second half, St. John’s was looking for their rhythm, but the Eagles’ goalie kept shutting the door on offensive bursts, until Reed Daniel got a hockey assist to Gow and Schuler for another transition goal to cut the lead to three. For a moment the Mavs got a glimmer of being near the “Threshold of Victory,” like the ‘Horns in the “Game of the Century” in Little Rock.
Tall tales of Texas Longhorns would not be enough for the Mavericks to keep pace with the Eagles who won the third period 3-1, and finished the fourth with their 10th score.
St. John’s faces the Falcons of Kinkaid for the third place game on Saturday and a chance to improve their SPC standings from a year ago, and more importantly to follow their own slogans of success: “Not Without Honor,”(initiated by Coach Whitmore) “Train and Trust,” and hopefully “tap it in” like Chubs told Happy.
