Fourth Quarter Burst Brings Back Legend of Chico

As St. John’s rolled out of Scottland Yard at 1:29 p.m., signs kept pointing in the right direction for the Mavericks, clad in road red.  The bus was on time, and when we pulled up to St. Andrew’s early after passing a Chico's Tex-Mex along the way, the game was slated to start at 6:29 p.m. on the Cru’s marquee.  All St. John’s lacrosse meetings, practices and travel start 1 minute before the half hour, so either the home team ran out of 3’s or 0’s, or we found another sign that things would go well for the Mavericks.

The Cru however, struck first with 11:11 on the board, but Caldwell Flores picked up his first point on the day with an assist to William Jewett to tie it up two minutes later.  The first quarter ended on a 2-2 tie fueled by a rocket from Reed Daniel, yet St. Andrew’s Jack Scharnberg surfaced again for the Cru and stuck their third goal with 8:01 in the second.  Scharnberg was involved with all of the Cru’s 5 goals going 3 and 2 for the game.

Flores put the Mavs up 4 to 3 at the half on a flurry of two goals giving St. John’s their first lead in their last two games combined, and a point away from his first hat trick of the year.  Nevertheless, Scharnberg showed up again for SAS, assisting on their fourth score and putting the Cru up 5-4 early in the third period with his own goal.

Flores countered to tie it at 5 at the end of the period, setting up a fourth quarter finish for St. John’s and a "Chico."

The name "Chico" is from the first static stretch story of the season, and is the most memorable so far.  In 1957 it was Chico Mendoza who was responsible for blocking Syracuse #44 Jim Brown's extra point to give TCU a 28-27 Cotton Bowl win over the Orange in Dallas.  Many players were responsible for that victory and it was Mendoza's will to finish that made the difference.

Fifty three years later in Austin, William Payne found a will of his own, and started the Maverick run at 9:06.   From a Daniel feed, #21 finally put the Mavs in the lead for good getting a shot by the Cru’s stingy goalie, Alec Garza, who had 20 saves on the day.  Less than a minute later, Daniel hit the top left corner and scored his second goal before assisting Jewett with his.   The burst carried over to the defense as St. John's own #44, Walker Hobby, resurected the legend of "Chico Mendoza," diving to stop a score and help preserve the 4th quarter shut out.  William Wallace took it from there, picked up 1 of his team high 8 gb’s and cashed it in for the D with the final score.  It was a 4-0 first fourth quarter finish for St. John’s (2-1 SPC, 2-3 THSLL South).

St. John’s hosts Strake Jesuit at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.  Be there at 6:59 to take in all the action and bring your signs and Chico's.