Statesmen Drop First League Contest
Oskaloosa–The William Penn men’s lacrosse team unfortunately could not capture the league’s regular season crown on Senior Day Saturday, falling 10-5 to No. 9 Benedictine in Heart of America Athletic Conference action.
No. 6 WPU (10-2, 7-1 Heart), which saw its nine-game winning streak snapped, was seeking to claim the Heart crown outright. Instead, the Statesmen will now have to defeat St. Ambrose in its regular-season finale next Wednesday (at Davenport at 6 p.m.) to gain a possible share of the regular season title, while an outright championship is still on the table via a win over SAU AND a loss by the Ravens. BC will take on Midland next Wednesday in its final game of the regular season.
In what was their lowest scoring output of the spring, the navy and gold were outshot 38-33 and struggled in clearing the ball at 19-for-28, while BC was 25-for-27.
WPU struck first as Lucas Cox (Fr., Memphis, Tenn., Kinesiology) beat the Raven goalkeeper unassisted just 19 seconds into the afternoon. A scoring drought ensued as nearly seven minutes transpired before the next goal was recorded by BC.
Five minutes later, Everett Breniser (So., Centennial, Colo., Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) found the netting on an unassisted goal for a 2-1 advantage. Unfortunately, the squad’s last lead of the day lasted only six seconds as the visitors quickly tied the game at 2-2.
The second quarter was even more dominated by the defense as Kenny Bohney (Sr., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science) produced the lone WPU goal, managing a man-up, unassisted score with 1:11 remaining in the first half. BC scored only one time as well, earlier in the stanza as the squads hit the locker room knotted at 3-3.
The Statesmen unfortunately failed to keep pace with the Ravens after intermission. Benedictine tallied the first three goals of the third quarter, while Nate Levy (So., Lynwood, Wash., Biology) (unassisted) cut the deficit to two at 6-4 with 2:59 on the clock.
BC then answered with two goals, while Matt Scott (Fr., Denver, Colo., Sports Management) got on the board on an unassisted goal at the 8:30 mark to make the score 8-5. The hosts could draw no closer, though, as the Ravens finished the day with back-to-back scores down the stretch.
William Penn fell short despite committing three fewer turnovers (22-25) and holding a slight edge in ground balls (32-31). Cox tallied a team-best four caused turnovers, while Nolan Soller (Fr., Owatonna, Minn., Industrial Technology) and Bradley Howell (Sr., Layton, Utah, Psychology) each had three. The trio of Cox, Levy, and Blake Cyboron (Sr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Industrial Technology) all ended up with four ground balls.
WPU won nine of the 18 faceoffs with Bryce Campbell (Sr., Meridian, Idaho, Kinesiology) going 7-for-14.
Connor Russell (Sr., Grand Haven, Mich., Applied Computer Science) recorded 15 saves in the setback.
“I give a lot of credit to Benedictine,” Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. “They beat us in preparation, execution, and effort. We have a great group, and I am excited to see how they respond.”
