Richmond 8, Furman 2
RICHMOND, Va. - Richmond men’s lacrosse stayed perfect in Southern Conference play by defeating visiting Furman 8-2 Saturday at Robins Stadium. The Spiders improve to 7-4 overall, a program record for wins in a season, and a perfect 3-0 in the SoCon. The three league wins also sets a new program mark after last year’s inaugural season.
Furman falls to 2-8 overall, 1-3 in league games.
The Spiders jumped out quickly with three goals in the first three minutes. Sophomore J.P. Forester scored his 20th goal of the season with a goal 78 seconds into the game on an assist from sophomore Dan Ginestro for the 1-0 lead.
Just 30 seconds later, A.J. Lapitino scored an unassisted goal and less than a minute later, redshirt junior Alex Hatem made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal with 12:04 remaining in the first quarter.
The Spiders finished the first leading 5-0 and shut out the Paladins in two different quarters in the game, their seventh and eighth defensive shutout quarters of the season, including six in their three SoCon games.
The defense was stifling for the Spiders. Richmond defenseman Tom Monzo had the game-high with four caused turnovers. Fellow defensemen Ryan Dennis and Brendan Hynes caused three turnovers each. Hynes led all players with nine ground balls in the game.
Forester, Hatem and sophomore Mitch Goldberg all had two goals for the Spiders. Goldberg has registered at least one point in his last 20 games, dating back to last season.
Forester finished with three points by adding an assist. He leads the Spiders with 33 points this season.
Richmond sophomore goalie Benny Pugh gave up just one goal and made four saves in just over 57 minutes of game play. It was the third time in his career he played more than a half and gave up a goal or less. He is also 7-4 this season.
The Spiders will head to High Point next Saturday in a Southern Conference game to start at noon.
Mercer 17, VMI 4
LEXINGTON, Va. – The Mercer men’s lacrosse team jumped out a 7-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 17-4 rout of VMI on Saturday afternoon.
Mercer’s fourth-straight victory propelled the team to 4-5 (4-0 SoCon), while the Keydets dropped to 0-11 (0-4 SoCon).
Junior Chris Baxa netted a career-high four goals in the victory, while freshman Jackson Kleintz paced the team with seven points on the strength of six assists. Eleven different players scored in the win as the Bears tied a program record goal output.
Sophomore Chris Rahill drew first blood, scoring less than three minutes in thanks to Kleintz’s first assist of the afternoon. Rahill would add two more goals in the first quarter to help the Bears take a 5-0 lead into the first break.
Senior Tim Geran and freshman James Fromert scored back-to-back goals in the first three minutes of the second period to stake the Bears to a 7-0 advantage. VMI got on the board later in the second period, but Mercer was never threatened en route to the victory.
Mercer finished with a 48-30 lead in shots and a 31-25 advantage in ground balls. The Bears converted 14-of-16 clear attempts, while senior Justin Evans won 12-of-20 faceoffs. Sophomore Justin Phifer also took four faceoffs, winning three of those opportunities.
Mercer’s fourth-straight win ties a program record set last season. The Bears go for their fifth consecutive victory hosting Air Force on April 11.
High Point 9, Jacksonville 6
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's lacrosse team registered a 9-6 win over a pesky Jacksonville University squad at D.B. Milne Field on Saturday.
The Panthers (6-5, 2-1) used a 4-0 run over the final 9 minutes to pull away from the Dolphins (4-5, 1-2) for a 9-6 triumph. HPU got four goals from junior Dan Lomas and 12 saves redshirt-senior Austin Geisler to lead the way.
Freshman T Moyer registered a career high with three points (1g, 2a) while junior Matt Thistle added two insurance goals in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Sean Harrison had a multi-point game (1g, 1a) and freshman Connor Robinson chipped in with a man-up goal to round out the scoring.
Junior Zack Price caused four of the Dolphins 19 turnovers. Meanwhile, junior Jamie Piluso went 11-of-19 (.579) in a battle of the Southern Conference's top two face-off specialists. Piluso, Price and junior Adam Seal all grabbed four ground balls to lead the team.
JU won the ground ball battle overall (31-26) and took four more shots than HPU (33-29). On the other hand, Geisler's 12 stops and a +3 margin (16-19) in turnovers helped the Panthers overcome those numbers and earn the win.
Neither offense was able to gain any traction in the first quarter as both team committed six turnovers. The Dolphins notched the only score of the stanza when Dakota Rohlin found the back of the net with 7:52 in the first frame.
Lomas evened the score with an underhanded goal off an assist from Moyer just over two minutes into the second quarter (1-1, 11:57). JU moved back on top at 2-1 before the Panthers got a man-up goal from Robinson to make it 2-2 with 4:08 until the break.
From there, Lomas put the Purple & White on top for the first time with his second goal of the game (3-2, 1:01). However, the Dolphins tied it right back up with Rohlin's second score (3-3, 0:36).
Harrison opened the second half by bouncing a shot past JU's Bass Barfield to make it 4-3 with 13:23 left in the third quarter. Conor Igoe, then, scored his second goal of the afternoon for the Dolphins to knot the score at 4-4 with 10 minutes left in the quarter.
JU regained the lead when Chase Miller capitalized on a man-up opportunity to make it 5-4 with 5:48 on the clock. But Lomas stuck again. The Burlington, Ontario native scooped the ball off the turf and scored a behind-the-back goal in one motion to send the game to the final stanza tied 5-5.
However, the Dolphins jumped right back on top with a goal at the 14:04 mark to regain a 6-5 advantage. But once again, Lomas had the answer. The lefty scored to tie the contest seconds before Moyer scored to make it 7-6 with 8:38 to play.
Thistle scored two insurance goals (2:59 and 1:58) to close out the scoring and give HPU the 9-6 win.
The Purple & White will continue SoCon play on April 11 at Vert Stadium against Richmond at noon.
Air Force 11, Bellarmine 8
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Despite four goals from sophomore attack Austin Shanks, the Bellarmine University lacrosse team fell 11-8 to Air Force on Saturday at Carroll Senior (Texas) High School.
In addition to Shanks, who boosted his team-leading goals total to 24, senior midfielder Daniel Zamora had two scores for Bellarmine (3-6). Senior attack Dylan Gatt and sophomore attack Graham Macko chipped in one goal apiece. Shanks and Gatt notched BU's two assists, while freshman Connor Harryman won half of his 22 face-offs and collected five ground balls.
Christopher Allen, James Burke, Nate Hruby and Grant Gould each tallied two goals for Air Force (6-5), while Kyle O'Brien posted five ground balls and goalkeeper Doug Gouchoe registered 12 saves.
Bellarmine dug itself a 4-1 hole after the first period, a deficit which the Knights ultimately couldn't overcome, although they threatened several times. Air Force managed to score four of the last six goals to pull away from BU late.
With three minutes left in the third period, Gatt found Shanks for his third goal, which cut Air Force's lead to 7-6. Before the quarter ended, Hruby found the net twice to give the Falcons some breathing room heading into the last frame.
A little over a minute into the fourth, Shanks spotted Zamora for his second goal to push Bellarmine back within 9-7. However, over the majority of the next 12 minutes, the Knights were unable to find the net while the Falcons scored twice to clinch the win. Shanks did manage to score his fourth goal with 2:10 left to cap the scoring.
Shanks also opened the scoring, locating the net 50 seconds into the game. Air Force had a strong response, posting the next four goals before the first period ended.
The Knights controlled the second quarter as Zamora, Shanks and Macko each scored while BU limited the Falcons to one goal in the period. Bellarmine went into halftime down 5-4.
Bellarmine will host Jacksonville University at 1 p.m. (ET) next Saturday.