BELLINGHAM, Wash. – It came down to the wire, but University of Providence lacrosse won its second straight game, fighting through adversity to beat PNCLL North foe Western Washington University 10-9. The win doesn't quite clinch a playoff yet for the Argos, but at 3-1 in conference play, they currently sit in second place and would have to face a highly unlikely confluence of events to miss the postseason.
 
Both teams entered the 2018 season ranked in the Top 25, but both have since fallen out of the rankings. Even so, throughout the course of play, both teams proved themselves to be capable squads with a resiliency amble enough to bounce back from big runs by the other team.
 
"This was a game we had to be pretty tough in. There was a lot of adversity throughout. Western Washing kept battling back," UP Head Coach Fred Boekel said.
 
The first big run came from the Argos and spanned the whole first quarter and the first few minutes of the second. During that stretch, UP took a 3-0 lead and showcased a balanced offensive attack.
 
UP's first goal of the game came from an unlikely pairing. With 11:03 on the first quarter clock sophomore middie Mike Davis scored his second goal of the season, and it came off of a pass from senior attack Jordan Daugherty, for his first points of the year.
 
After a goal from freshman Turner Maza put the Argos ahead by 3 goals with 12:19 left in the second quarter, the Vikings turned the game around. WWU took advantage of some UP turnovers and loosened up the Argo defense by forcing it to defend in transition. Within the span of two minutes, the score was tied 3-3.
 
At that point, the team's leading scorer senior attack Josh Smith stepped up to regain the lead for the Argos. Instead of his usual unassisted goals, Smith scored twice on similar assisted plays, receiving a pass from a dodging teammate running from X to bury a fairly shallow angle from the left side of the net.
 
Smith scored again on a second assist by freshman Wyatt Jones in the top of the third to put UP back ahead by 3 goals with the score at 6-3. That is when the next major hurdle presented itself.
 
Western Washington brought the score to 6-4 with 10 minutes left. Then, with less than five minutes remaining in the quarter, UP drew two flags while defending the Vikings. One of those two penalties came against junior defender Chase Clark, a 2017 Honorable Mention All-American, and he was eventually ejected from the game.
 
Down by two players, and without their top defender and second-leading scorer in Clark, UP responded. Following a long series of ground ball scrambles, freshman defender Tommy West came away with the ball and raced down the field, and the found Smith open in front of the net for a man-down goal.
 
That didn't deter the Vikings, who scored three straight, ending with a game-tying goal at 12:45 in the fourth. Having lost a 3 goal lead twice and now with Clark out of the game, all the momentum seemed to back WWU.
 
It took an unlikely candidate to turn that tide. It was Daugherty, scoreless on the season heading into the game, who ended five minutes of scoreless lacrosse with 7:36 left in the game. Running from X, the senior drove past left goal-line-extended, drew a foul, cut to the crease, split two defenders and bounced a shot into the lower right corner of the net to give the Argos an 8-7 lead.
 
"That was huge. The guys needed a rallying point and it's hard to stem the tide when the other team is going on a run like that, you're missing one of your best players, and the guys just feel like the world is against you," Boekel said. "Jordan works so hard doing the dirty jobs, he's become a ground ball magnet, and it was so much fun to see him get that goal. It was incredible."
 
A long solo rip from West and a feed from Jones to junior middie Kobe Johnson over the next minute and a half followed Daugherty's effort and once again put UP ahead by 3.
 
The Vikings wouldn't go away quietly, however. Once against Western Washington took advantage of some failed clears and also a few ill-advised shots and with 12 seconds left they brought the margin down to 1 goal.
 
UP's faceoff man Dante Duran, and the team's faceoff wing players did enough to keep the ball on the ground and out of WWU's control until the final horn sounded.
 
Coming off of a program record 9 goals in the team's previous game, Smith finished the contest with another 5. UP's other 5 goals were scored by five different plays, and UP's 7 total assists were a season high.
 
The other hero of the game was Smith's brother, Jeremy Smith, the team's goalkeeper. The junior finished with 23 total saves, including 8 in the third quarter. His 23 saves set a new career best for Smith and is 1 save shy of the program record.
 
UP's record goes to 3-7 (3-1) on the year and the win marks the end of 10 game run of road games. The Argos have yet to play at home in 2018 and will get to change that April 14 with a home game against University of Northern Colorado at 2 p.m.