Men's Lacrosse | 4/12/2018 10:04:00 AM

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Panthers looked to finish their home schedule strong against Central Michigan on Wednesday night. The Chippewas were a struggling team that was looking to upset the Panthers, even though they have never beaten Davenport in six meetings between the two.
 
#15 Davenport vs. Central Michigan (Wednesday, April 11)
Final Score: DU – 13 l CMU – 8
Records: DU (10-2) l CMU (2-9)
 
Davenport came out with the early attack, but were unable to score on their first couple of possessions. Central Michigan would break the ice with a goal from Austin Goddard. A couple minutes later, leading scorer Bryan Larocque tied things up with an assist from David Boomsma. Shortly thereafter, the Riley brothers teamed up as Jarred Riley fed a pass to Dylan Riley, and he fired one past CMU goaltender Austin Collins to give the Panthers the lead. Jarred Riley would score a goal of his own a couple of minutes later, followed up by back-to-back goals from Dylan Riley. After Riley's third of the game put Davenport up by five, Joe Lopez won the ensuing face-off clean, walked right into the heart of the Chippewa defense and scored his fifth of the season to give DU a 6-1 lead after the first 15 minutes.
 
The Chippewas opened the scoring in the second quarter with a man-up goal from Collin Mitchell. Davenport would answer back a couple of minutes later, as Josh Jubenville tallied his 16th of the season. Jubenville would tack on another one for the Panthers at the halfway mark of the quarter.
 
Head Coach Chris Esquivel was very adamant about the importance of a depth scorer such as Jubenville, "[Josh] is such a relentless competitor and that's really big to make us dynamic and put a lot of stress on the defense's we'll see moving forward."
 
Mitchell would score again for the Chips before the end of the half, and the Panthers took the 8-3 lead into the break.
 
Central Michigan scored first again in the third with another man-up goal from Mitchell. There would not be any scoring for over eight minutes, as both team's struggled offensively. With just over five minutes left in the quarter, Jubenville would score his third of the game with a hard-working assist from Max Bush. A pair of goals from Larocque with assists coming from Blake McDonald and Dylan Riley, respectively, gave the Panthers an 11-4 advantage heading into the final quarter.
 
The Chippewas refused to quit as Nate Ray would score early in the fourth on a pass from Carson Pakula, the Chippewas' leading scorer. Ray would score two more goals on almost identical plays set up by Pakula to dig even further into the Panther lead. Another Davenport penalty led to another man-up goal for the Chippewas, as Pakula cut the DU lead to three.
 
"I think it was a wake-up call for us," Esquivel stated regarding Central's fourth quarter run. "We realized we had to put up our best effort, and it helped us get back on track."
 
After a big save by Jack Huffman, Davenport would respond with a huge insurance goal from Jake Wilson. Jubenville would seal the deal with his fourth of the game a minute later, and the Panthers punched their ticket into the postseason with the 13-8 victory.
 
UP NEXT
Davenport will travel out to Pittsburgh for their final game of the regular season to take on the Panthers. Pitt is currently 4-7 on the season, 2-2 in CCLA action. They play the night before on the road against West Virginia. The winner of this game will play Minnesota in the first round of the CCLA tournament, whereas the loser will be forced to take on No. 5 Michigan State. Despite such implications, Esquivel does not seem too concerned about where the Panthers will be seeded in the tournament, "It doesn't matter who we play in the playoffs. We know we're going to play talented teams in the first round, and then we would have to play a talented team in the second round." Friday's matchup is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Pitt's Sports Dome.

Story Credit: Tyler Kuehl