Box score

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —Defending NCAA Division II national champion Fort Lewis (8-4-2 overall, 5-3-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) got some revenge over UC-Colorado Springs (7-6-1, 6-4-1) in a 3-2 win at Mountain Lion Stadium today.
 
The game was far from a routine one-goal win. Both teams had players sent off — UCCS' Max Thomas for a pair of yellows and FLC goalkeeper Ryan Schaul for a handball out of the box, forcing true freshman Cooper Hall into his first collegiate action. Fort Lewis scored two goals within a minute-and-a-half span only to surrender a penalty kick goal 29 seconds later.
 
“I'm proud of the guys for how they played today,” said fourth-year FLC head coach Oige Kennedy. “It was a tough one on Friday for us (a 0-0 draw at home to Colorado State-Pueblo). It was the story of the season, not putting the game away.
 
“Everybody worked so hard for each other,” he added. “It's great for them to get the result.”

 Aaron Kloer gave FLC a lead midway through the first frame off a Yannis Becker assist, netting his second marker of the year at 22:41.
 
“The first goal was a great ball by Yannis, who slipped one into Kloer,” said Kennedy.
 
UCCS' James Roberts leveled the score at 1-1 eight minutes later off an assist by Austin Bell.
 
Then the craziness started.
 
Becker notched his second assist of the year when his corner kick found the head of Derek Freeman at the back post. Freeman, a forward by trade who has been forced into duty as a central defender this year because of injuries, scored his first goal of the season on the set piece at 55:30.
 
Ninety-seven seconds later, Casey Dean flicked a crossing pass from Artur Piperkov over UCCS goalkeeper Brandon Costa for his fourth goal of 2012, giving the Skyhawks a two-goal cushion at 57:07.
 
That cushion didn't last long. Mash Shaswar buried a penalty kick just 29 seconds later to trim the lead to a single goal at 57:36.
 
Thirty-two seconds after that, Thomas was booked for the second time and sent off, giving the Skyhawks a man advantage. That, too, was short-lived, as Schaul was given a red at 73:02 and shown the gate.
 
Enter Cooper Hall, a true freshman who earned FLC's backup keeper job during two-a-day practices in August. With no time to warm up and 17 minutes left on the clock, the rookie held FLC's fate in the balance. If the Skyhawks have any chance of earning one of three bids from the South Central Region to the NCAA Division II playoffs next month, they must run the table and win out — five straight RMAC regular season games and at least a pair in the RMAC postseason tournament.
 
Hall proved up to the task.
 
“He did well when he came in and made a big save at the end,” said Kennedy.
 
That save occurred on a blast from UCCS' Brett Drefs that Hall deflected to the crossbar with just 1:02 remaining in the game.

Fort Lewis extracted vengeance on UCCS for the Mountain Lions' 3-2 upset victory at Dirks Field on Sept. 23. In that game, the Mountain Lions ended a 22-game losing skid to the Skyhawks. With today's result, FLC improved to 39-6-4 in the all-time series.
 
More importantly, the Skyhawks — who have been snake-bitten of late, scoring just five goals in a five-game stretch that saw them go 2-2-1 — managed to finish plays.
 
“We were very efficient in front of the goal today,” said Kennedy.
 
Fort Lewis hopes to continue its winning ways next Friday when it travels to No. 2 Regis (11-0-1, 9-0-0) for a 1 p.m. showdown with the Rangers. The Skyhawks have dominated the series with the Rangers by the tune of 32-10-5 and are undefeated (8-0-2) in the last 10 meetings between the two. The last Regis win in the series was a 1-0 RU triumph on Sept. 9, 2007, on the Regis Match Pitch.
 
FLC's final road trip of the regular season also includes a stop at Colorado State-Pueblo (4-7-4, 2-5-4) at 2:30 p.m. next Sunday. The ThunderWolves have played three straight scoreless draws, including a 0-0 tilt at FLC's Dirk Field two days ago. The Skyhawks lead the all-time series with CSU-Pueblo 39-7-3.
 
“We just want to put together as many results as we can and then see where we're at at the end of the year,” said Kennedy.
 
The Skyhawks climbed one spot to No. 5 in the RMAC standings with the win. Regis (27 points, 9-0-0) has all but clinched the regular season title with two weeks remaining. Five other teams are jockeying for the No. 2 spot and a first-round bye in the league playoffs: Colorado Mines (20, 6-2-2), Colorado Mesa (19, 6-3-1), UC-Colorado Springs (19, 6-4-1), Fort Lewis (17, 5-3-2), and Metro State (15, 5-5-0). Each team has played 10 league games, with the exceptions of UCCS (11) and Regis (9).