No. 9 Utah St. Toppled by College of Idaho

CALDWELL, Idaho - Yotes Lacrosse played out their highest anticipated home game of the season as they hosted No. 9 Utah State Aggies. The No. 17 College of Idaho (8-0) had their best performance of the season so far and triumphed 14-11 to upset the visitors.

The Yotes knew the Aggies (5-5) would be a handful as they had already took down four ranked teams coming into Caldwell, including the then No. 2 Montana St. The Aggies only lost by one goal in a 12-11 decision against then No. 1 UCSD. The first quarter went in favor to the higher ranked Aggies 3-1. With their backs against the wall, the Yotes powered in five goals in the second quarter and only gave up two bringing the score 6-5 in favor of the Yotes at halftime. 

The Aggies would not go silently into the night and the two battled to a 7-7 draw midway through the third quarter. The challenge invigorated the Yotes and they powered past five unanswered goals in the third quarter to take a 12-7 lead into the critical fourth quarter. The five goal deficit proved to be too much for the visitors. They got within two goals before the Yotes shut the door with the 14th and final goal with only a minute left in the game.

Hunter Duran led the Yotes offense with his career best four goal night. Paul O'Neill go four points by scoring a pair of goals and assisting on two others. Wyatt Neu also scored four points by putting past a hat trick and assisting on another. Neu also led the Yotes' efforts on loose balls by picking up six ground balls. Defender Chris Niemann also stood out with four groundballs in the statement victory. 

Between the sticks, last week's PEARL Honor Roll Goalie Jacob Wong went the distance and made eleven critical saves. The defense held firm limiting chances despite the Aggies 24-5 advantage from faceoffs. The Yotes capitalized off of 24 turnovers by the Aggies. The highly intense game was encapsulated in nine total penalties on the night. The Yotes only committed two to the Aggies' seven.

The Yotes battle next on senior day where they look to honor their seniors with a result against the visiting Central Washington Univ. First faceoff is set for Sunday March 23rd at 1pm MT with the honoring of the seniors set to begin at 12:45pm.