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Penalties were instrumental in the Spartan's 10-4 loss to Chapman College on Saturday's lacrosse game. SJSU amassed 17 penalties keeping Spartan players in the penalty box for a total of 17 and a half minutes.
Derrick Metzger, SJSU's player/coach said that his team's one-man-down defense is awesome.
Unfortunately, penalties forced the Spartans to play one man down much of the game, and their defense wasn't able to hold off Chapman's assault on the SJSU goal.
Chapman assumed control of the game early with the first of Mike Bonifazi's two goals only minutes into the game.
Chapman would go on to score four times in the first quarter. Three of those goals came while SJSU had a man in the penalty box.
The Spartans kept close through the first quarter with two goals by Jeff Scott. SJSU nearly pulled within one point of Chapman, but a goal was discounted because San Jose had too many players on the field.
By the end of the first half, SJSU was trailing 6-2 with 10 penalties compared to Chapman's five.
"They hurt us a lot," said Metzger about SJSU's numerous penalties. The junior attributed the number of penalties to frustration of being down in the game, and to the over-eagerness of a new squad that is sill not used to playing together.
Metzger said that they have worked on cutting down their penalties and he expects as the team becomes more familiar with one another, the number of penalties will drop off.
In the third quarter, the Spartan defense came out with renewed vigor. Chapman still exhibited their superior passing and ball control that had the ball around SJSU's goal most of the first half. But now, Chapman found it more difficult to get it into the net.
Spartan goalie, Jeff Johnson, gave up just one goal during the third quarter to the Chapman offense that had taken up residency outside the SJSU goal.
However, the Spartan offense failed to capitalize upon the lull in their opponents scoring even when Chapman started to run into penalty problems of their own.
Spartan's lone third quarter score came from junior, Tyr Rogriguez, with three Chapman players in the penalty box.
In the fourth quarter, the Spartan defense ran out of gas, giving up three goals to Chapman's overpowering offensive attack
Chapman's Todd Carson led the day's scoring with three goals while teammates Pieter Maal and Bonifazi followed with two goals each.
