Just Short
DAVIS, Calif. --- California Baptist University took on UC Davis Friday night, at the Aggies' home pool, to kick off the 2012 Aggie Shootout.
The No. 17 Lancers were outscored 12-11 by the No. 12 Aggies and picked up their fourth loss of the season.
"We had a great game from the field," said head coach Rick Rowland. "We jumped out on them, they just rallied back."
The Lancers got off to a 3-2 lead after the first quarter following goals from Scott Butler, Keith Jizmejian and David Rodriguez.
The Aggies rallied in the second, posting four goals, and tying the game at six heading into halftime.
After a 3-3 third quarter, the game moved into the fourth, where a goal from UC Davis' Bernie Rogers sealed the win for the Aggies with just 1:17 remaining.
Chris Vanjoff scored his third goal of the game with :52 left, but it was not enough to complete a comeback for CBU.
"We got the ball back again with :20 remaining," said Rowland. "We then got a timeout, ran a play and got a shot off. We just missed."
The Lancers had a strong offensive output led by their production of "natural goals," which are goals that are scored in non-6-on-5 situations. They scored nine "natural goals" and held the Aggies to seven.
CBU also capitalized on its 6-on-5 opportunities scoring in 50 percent of the chances they got, however they did miss on their one five-meter penalty shot.
"I was happy to see the natural goals," said Rowland. "We just missed other opportunities that could have helped us."
Vanjoff's three goals led all scorers, Scott Gleason, David Ring and Jizmejian each had two and Butler and Rodriguez rounded out CBU's scoring with one a piece.
Austen Ramer played the whole game in the cage for the Lancers, adding five saves to his rising career total.
Butler had another strong game for the Lancers, going +17 on the stat sheet, as he picked up one goal, two steals, 2 ejections drawn, won a spring and drew the five-meter.
"I feel like in the pool we outplayed them, we just came up a little bit short," said Rowland. "It was tooth-and-nail the whole way."
The loss drops CBU to 2-4 on the season; they have faced four CWPA top-20 schools. They will play Chapman and Redlands tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and 12:40 p.m.
