Cambridge Men's 1sts continued their unbeaten run in the 2019/20 BUCS League for Lacrosse, beating Warwick University’s Men's 2nds 12-0 on Wednesday afternoon to go joint-top with Lincoln University.

Cambridge began the game with a high-attacking tempo, pressing hard. Warwick did little to seriously threaten them, with their first break coming five minutes in, and swiftly resulting in a brutal Cambridge counter-attack. Cambridge’s lead, when it came through a powerful shot by Ashley Clark, was well deserved and marked the start of the Light Blues’ rout of Warwick. By the end of the first quarter, Cambridge were already 4-0 up, thanks to the aforementioned goal and those by Ben Briggs, Mattijs De Paepe and Teddy Mack. The Light Blues looked comfortably unassailable.

While Warwick maintained their enthusiasm, Cambridge’s superior quality shone through. Well-organised off the back, Cambridge held their position and displayed an impressive physicality to muscle the Warwick team out of the line of play. The beginning of the second quarter also saw the Cambridge team briefly lose two men – due to thirty-second timeouts on the pitch’s side-lines for fouls – and yet, despite having the ball deep inside the Cambridge half, Warwick were unable to convert their temporary advantage into a goal.

"Both teams knew that Cambridge had already won the match"

As the second quarter wore on, the match lost some of its intensity. Cambridge had switched tactics, purposely slowing the game down to circle the ball nearer to the goal, instead of simply launching a straight-forward attack. Despite this drop in energy, Cambridge still scored another three goals – two of which were nicely planted into the back of the net by Sam Allen, and one by Angus McIntosh – taking the score to 7-0 at halftime.

The second half continued the one-sided affair, with both teams knowing that Cambridge had already won the match.

Warwick’s play became slightly desperate at times, as the players on the side-lines encouraged shots on goal from the half-way line. Indeed, for large portions of the third quarter, the ball never entered Cambridge’s half. By the end of the quarter, Cambridge was 10-0 up, thanks to two goals by Ashley Clark and a powerful shot by Matt Rodgers.

The start to the final quarter was somewhat sluggish, with the Cambridge team slow to actually take up their positions on the pitch. Play itself began to tended to become increasingly sloppy, although this made for a more dramatic finish – Warwick had their best shot of the match at the end of the fourth quarter due to some defensive confusion, leading to a moment where no-one was entirely sure if the ball had actually crossed into the net or not. Luckily for the Light Blues, it was ruled to have not. Instead, Edward Wakefield and Teddy Mack took the final score to 12-0.

Overall, the game itself was highly physical, indeed warranting the American football-style helmets and padding. Likewise, the quarters themselves were short and dramatic enough to retain a spectator’s attention, even on a fiendishly chilly Wednesday afternoon.

Cambridge’s dominance and technical superiority was never in doubt, with an especially impressive performance by Man of the Match, William Touzet. This bodes well for the rest of their season, as the team aim for promotion and a return to the Midlands 1A League.