MEN: No. 11 Cal Poly Upsets No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth in OT

By Michael Carnow
WSL California Correspondent

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Going into Monday night, the fifth-ranked Minnesota-Duluth men’s lacrosse team had outscored its first five opponents 109-27 for an average margin of victory of more than 16 goals a game.

Apparently, freshman Olivier Schmied and his Cal Poly teammates didn’t get the memo.

Schmied, an attackman out of Coronado High, scored the game-winning goal with 3:15 remaining in overtime to give the 11^th-ranked Mustangs a thrilling, 13-12 victory over the Bulldogs in an MCLA Division I game.

Sophomore middie Alex Hare dished to Schmied as he was cutting up the right side of the cage. Schmied fired home the clincher from about 10 yards as he got laid out by a defender to give Cal Poly (6-1) its third straight victory.

“I just wanted to put it on cage,” Schmied said. “Coach just told us that we had to want it more than the other team. Go to the cage and shoot it hard, I just wanted to do my job.”

Schmied scored three times, sophomore middie Matt Rudow added three points on one goal and two assists and junior attackman Andrew Haviland and freshman attackman Matt Graupmann each scored twice for Cal Poly.

Senior middie Brett Sack, senior attackman Colin Mason, sophomore attackman Kodie Goodwin and freshman middies Peter Chiang and Scott Heberer all scored once for the Mustangs.

Cal Poly also won 17 of the game’s 29 face-offs.

“That was such a fun game to play,” Cal Poly head coach Marc Lea said. “I just told my guys that it just wasn’t quite finished yet, and it took overtime to finally decide it. We just took the reigns off this game, a little run and gun to see what would happen.”

In a losing effort, senior attackman Casey Mithun posted a game-high five points on four goals and one assist, senior attackman Scott Wishart added four points on two goals and two assists and junior middie Dan Pitzl scored twice for Minnesota-Duluth (4-2).

Sophomore middie Max Thomas-Olson had two points on one goal and one assist, and senior middie Robert Nord, sophomore attackman Kevin Gaydos and freshman attackman Alex McNamara all scored once for the Bulldogs.

Minnesota-Duluth took advantage of Cal Poly’s penalties, scoring on four of its five man-up opportunities, which kept the Bulldogs in the game. 

Cal Poly scored three times in the final four minutes of the first half. Chiang capped the run when he scored with 11 seconds remaining to give the Mustangs an 8-5 lead. 

Minnesota-Duluth looked like a new team in the second half, scoring five of the game’s next seven goals to knot it at 10-10 heading into the fourth quarter. 

The game was tied 11-11 early in the fourth quarter before Graupmann briefly put Cal Poly in front when he scored with 12:26 remaining in regulation. Minnestoa-Duluth drew level with 6:44 to play, but that just set the stage for Schmied’s heroics.

“We definitely have a bad taste in our mouth,” Mithun said. “We didn’t come out how we would have liked. A couple turnovers here and there, and we just really didn’t play our game. We just have to reset from this and get playing some UMD lacrosse.”