by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us

LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Cal Poly defense is putting its opponents in a body bag.

After four games, the Mustangs are allowing 3.5 goals per outing. That includes contests against a high-flying Simon Fraser outfit along with a traditional power – and substantial rival – in UC Santa Barbara. Both managed just a trifecta against Poly.

On one level, the MCLA should be frightened. Cal Poly used Bobby Dabrieo’s lockdown thesis and parlayed it into a visit to the championship game of the MCLA National Championships powered by Under Armour last spring.

And that was when the Mustangs were giving up far more goals than they have this spring. At least to this point.

On the other level, we should be asking whether this is a sustainable undertaking for Cal Poly, especially considering the Mustangs are only scoring eight goals a game.

There’s one person who believes it is sustainable: former Colorado State coach Alex Smith.

“In regards to Cal Poly maybe becoming over-reliant on their defense, we always felt that iron sharpens iron,” Smith said. “Playing in close games throughout the year will prepare you for playing in close games in the tournament. It might be exhausting, but if that’s who you are, then lean on that defense.”

Smith was the architect of perhaps the best defensive teams in MCLA history during the Rams back-to-back title runs in 2012-’13. The ’12 squad allowed just 3.75 goals per game at the national championships, which is the current record, with the ’13 outfit coming in second at 4.00 per contest.

During the entirety of those two seasons, CSU allowed 10 goals just twice, and both came in 11-10 victories.

“Our goal in those years was to choke them out rather than knock them out,” Smith said. “We wanted to be in control of the tempo so teams would be forced to play at our pace. CU and BYU, who love playing fast, didn’t like playing half-field lacrosse. I always remarked to my assistants how bad we were scoring in transition during that time, but that tempo was something we were willing to sacrifice in order to make teams uncomfortable.”

Cal Poly, just like those old Ram teams, has plenty of offensive talent. A.J. Guralas and John Corbolotti are quality playmakers who would flourish in a more wide-open approach. But clearly Dabrieo has adopted the same mindset that Smith institutionalized five years ago.

“Watching lacrosse now, it’s hard to score in the 6-on-6, so teams that want to get up into double digits against teams like Cal Poly are going to have score in transition and run more than they would like,” Smith said. “They are going to have to sacrifice some defensive stops to open the game up a little more. I will be interested to see how BYU and CU match up against Poly, because those teams are known for their ‘organized chaos.’

“When you can ride and create a mess of the game by winning lots of groundballs, pushing in transition and taking tons of shots, that’s how these defensive grinders can be beaten.”

But you also need Cal Poly to fall into the trap, and right now they aren’t taking the bait.

Whoa. No. 7 St. John's rolls No. 8 Duluth by a dozen. #mcla17 https://t.co/y02FotiAKp
— MCLA (@MCLA) February 18, 2017

How Good Are the Johnnies?
After dispatching St. Cloud State last week, this weekend was supposed to be the first real tests for St. John’s with No. 8 Duluth and No. 25 Missouri State coming to the new Gagliardi Dome. After outscoring the Bulldogs and Bears by a combined score of 35-5, I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of how the Johnnies are going to stack up.

The defense – which pitched an 18-0 shutout against MoState on Sunday – is every bit as good as in years past. The offense, however, is operating on a level rarely seen in Collegeville. Four different players notched at least a hat trick against Duluth, and the Bulldogs are typically no slouch on the defensive end.

St. John’s now takes a break before going on a run of six games against tournament qualifiers from last year, starting with No. 4 Concordia-Irvine on March 4.

Cal Poly Lacrosse defeated UCSB 4-3! Go Mustangs! @CalPolyLax pic.twitter.com/NKqV0dHoRb
— Jeffrey D. Armstrong (@CPPrezArmstrong) February 19, 2017

Top 5 Musings
The first regular season poll will come out this week. Here’s my Top 5 for each division if I was a voter (I’m not).

Division I
1. Cal Poly
2. Georgia Tech
3. Grand Canyon
4. Colorado
5. California

Division II
1. St. Thomas
2. Grand Valley State
3. St. John’s
4. North Dakota State
5. Concordia-Irvine

Division I Notes
- Georgia Tech not only hosted the first-ever Top 10 matchup at its facility when Arizona State came to town, but the Yellow Jackets rallied from a halftime deficit for the first time in two years. The game (which can be viewed above in its entirety thanks to our friends over Lacrosse Fire TV) wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing lacrosse contest, but it was expected.

Arizona State bounced back from the 7-6 setback with a 12-7 win over Georgia on Sunday. The Sun Devils will take a bit of a tumble in the polls, but they’ve established they have a great defense and a superb goalie in Johnny Perlite. If they can clean up the little stuff on offense, ASU will be a handful in April-May

- Florida State is 4-0 and will almost certainly creep into the Top 10 of this week’s poll, but the Seminoles narrowly avoided a bad loss to Alabama (with all due respect to the Tide, which has lost all three of its games by a combined six goals and undoubtedly has the attention of Georgia Tech for next week’s contest).

The game went to overtime after the Crimson Tide tied it up late, and the Noles pulled it out. The selection committee talks about how it’s about the key wins that will get you in and help with seeding, but bad losses can also leave them scratching their heads. This was a pothole avoided by FSU. They better make sure it doesn’t happen again.

OREGON takes down Chapman on their turf! FINAL - DUCKS: 8 Panthers: 5 #GoDucks
A post shared by Oregon Men's Lacrosse (@uolacrosse) on Feb 19, 2017 at 1:19pm PST

- New Oregon coach Markus McCaine didn’t get any favors with the Ducks’ schedule this year considering eight of the 11 games are on the road, including at the national champions in the first week of the season. At least it didn’t seem that way prior to this weekend. After Sunday’s win over Chapman, now I’m eyeballing the Oregon schedule looking for a loss.

Seriously.

The Ducks will probably not go undefeated with that many road games, although it’s not out of the realm of possibility. The Civil War at Oregon State is the most likely loss, but that’s more than two months away. Lot of things can happen between now and then. For now, the Ducks are in a very good spot.

- Texas has staked its claim to the best team in the LSA after beating SMU, 10-5. The Longhorns should be ranked this week. I still think the Mustangs are trying to find themselves and will be formidable in May…Cal is not the team Chapman wants to see trying to snap a two-game losing streak. The Bears are loaded and confident…I kind of get the feeling that Grand Canyon is just sitting back and rubbing its hands together waiting for the season to start.

Division II Notes

- Sierra Nevada took whatever drama was lingering in the WCLL race and shoved it in the trash can with Saturday’s 16-3 rout of No. 17 UC Davis. The ninth-ranked Eagles dispatched the only team left between them and the WCLL automatic qualifier with extreme prejudice. Since we can pencil SNC into the 16-team Division II field (although to be fair, Davis will get another crack at them), what is the Eagles' ceiling?

It’s seeding time for the Eagles. With St. Thomas, Duluth, Southern Oregon, Montana State and Concordia-Irvine still on the schedule, SNC could be anywhere between a No. 1 and a No. 12 seed when everything is said and done. Stay tuned.

What a great win today! 8-7 over Miami. Thank you fans for showing out today @fgcudancinge_gals @fgcu_swimclub @fgcumcs msoccer
A post shared by FGCU Lacrosse (@fgculacrosse) on Feb 18, 2017 at 1:04pm PST

- Intriguing team of the week: Northern Arizona. The ‘Jacks whitewashed Biola (22-10) and Channel Islands (24-0) over the weekend, setting themselves up as the No. 2 team in the SLC North behind Fullerton. Things are looking good for NAU, but they still have to solve the Titans and, if they get that far, Concordia-Irvine.

- I postulated in The Weekender that La.-Lafayette needed a clean sweep of its Georgia trip to make me believe they were the team to beat in the LSA. Well, the Cajuns went 2-1, which is solid, but combined with UT-Dallas’ comfortable start (3-0), we’re back to a toss-up between those two programs. They don’t meet in the regular season, so we’ll have to wait two months.

- After starting the season with a pair of Division I contests (Utah State, Utah Valley), Montana bounced back with solid wins against Portland (17-10) and Western Oregon (17-11). The March 4 game at Gonzaga will be a big one for the Griz…congrats to Rose-Hulman for picking up its first win. The Engineers knocked off Missouri S&T, 13-8.