Sexton Scores Hat Trick as Lacrosse Falls to Cleveland State, 17-8

Saturday, April 20

Salt Lake City, UT

12:00 PM

University of Utah

4-10

Cleveland State

7-7

Cleveland State

Utah

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Sexton Scores Hat Trick as Lacrosse Falls to Cleveland State, 17-8

4/20/2019 4:25 PM | Lacrosse

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY – James Sexton had his second hat trick of the season with three goals to lead the Utah lacrosse team as the Utes fell to Cleveland State, 17-8 on Saturday.

Although Utah scored the first goal of the game in the first minute, Cleveland State scored the next four and continued to steadily pull away throughout the game. Utah trailed 7-4 at halftime and 11-4 after the third quarter.

Sexton led Utah with three goals and Cam Redmond had two for the Utes. Josh Stout, Liam Cavanaugh-Fernandez and Quinault Mackey each had goals. Stout also had an assist for two points, Brandon Wilson had two assists and Chris Belcher and Jack Zarnik both had assists on the day. Donny Stock went 8-of-19 in faceoffs and led Utah with six ground balls. Samuel Cambere and Belcher had three ground balls each. Liam Donnelly, Daniel Costa and Zack Johns each saw time in goal with Johns making six saves on the day.

"It wasn't our day," head coach Brian Holman said. "We made mistakes early. I didn't get the sense that the guys were mentally in it. We tried everything we could, changed our personnel and went as deep as possible. I'm happy for some of the guys who got on the field and played well and disappointed for some of the guys who really tried hard, but they were better than us. We lacked a collective effort today, which is my fault and I'll do my best to correct that. At the end of the day, if you don't have max effort, and you're not doing things the right way, the team that's better is going to win. Give a lot of credit to Cleveland State. I have so much respect for their program and their coach. They've been through being a new program and know what we're going through."

Cleveland State held a 6-2 lead after the first quarter with Utah's goals coming from Stout and Sexton. Both teams struggled to score in the second quarter with the Utes outscoring the Vikings 2-1. Sexton scored a goal with an assist from Wilson in the early minutes of the quarter while Cavanaugh-Fernandez tallied his first career goal on a dive late in the quarter and Utah trailed by just three goals at halftime, 7-4.

Goal #2 of the day comes from #45, James Sexton! Utes trail Cleveland State, 5-2, 3:36 left in the 1Q. #goutes pic.twitter.com/qMPncuXwGw
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) April 20, 2019

It took a minute to confirm, but first career goal for Liam Cavanaugh-Fernandez! Utes trail CSU, 7-4. #goutes pic.twitter.com/eOQmyPGBIC
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) April 20, 2019

It was all Cleveland State in the third quarter, as the Vikings scored four goals to take an 11-4 lead before Redmond stopped the rally with his first goal of the day early in the fourth quarter. Sexton teamed up with Wilson again to give the Utes back-to-back goals but CSU scored the next two to continue to increase its lead. Redmond added another in the fourth quarter and Mackey also scored in the final minutes for his second goal of the season.

James Sexton with the hat trick! Utes trail Cleveland State, 12-6 with 12:45 left to play. #goutes pic.twitter.com/sL56FwN02Q
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) April 20, 2019