First Win in Year 2 for Men’s Lacrosse

Montreat, N.C.–Searching for their first win in 2021, William Penn men’s lacrosse faced Montreat for the first time on Saturday. The game was close through one but WPU used a strong second quarter to put enough space between them and the Cavaliers to hold them off in the second half. Winning by a score of 11-9, the Statesmen improve to 1-2 on the season.

Having faced some difficulties scoring in the first two games, the navy and gold set out straight-away to put some points on the board. A ground ball was picked up by Ryan Stuckey (Fr., Sherwood, Ore.) who brought it into the offensive end for the first WPU possession. Boston Romero (Fr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business) let fly the first shot of the day but Cavalier goalie Jacob Gunn made the stop. WPU then cleared their own zone and the ball got on the stick of Carter Lucas (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn., Mechanical Engineering), who buried the second shot of the game to make it 1-0 William Penn. Lucas picked up his first goal of the season and the Statesmen continued to chug along.

The Statesmen fired a couple more shots away after Ryan Swarts (Fr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) won the draw, but none of them found the back of the net. Eric Garigan (Fr., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science), making his first start of the year, faced the next couple of shots but they did not come close enough for him to make a save. Helping his own cause, he picked up a loose ball and started the WPU counterattack.

Max Standage (Fr., Phoenix, Ariz., Business Management) plucked one off the cross bar and Romero found the rebound, scooping it up and scoring on a nifty move to make it 2-0, his third tally on the year. Swarts won the next draw as well, with the playing running through Collin Baliva (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.), who a goal to make it 3-0, his fourth of the year.

Montreat then woke up, taking a flurry of shots and pressing the attack after a penalty was called against WPU. They scored their first goal with 7:56 to go in the first, netting another a minute later. The Cavaliers then tied the game at 3-3 with 5:23 to go. After the outburst from the home side, WPU got back to work and with 30 seconds to go, Lucas had a shot saved by Gunn. However, his clearing attempt thudded straight down, allowing Riley West (Fr., Corona, Calif.) to pick it up. Spotting Romero on the far side, his pass was one the mark and Romero struck for his second goal of the game, giving the Statesmen a 4-3 lead at the end of the first.

Swarts helped the navy and gold win the ball to start the second but neither side collected a shot on goal in the first few possessions. Garigan made a sparkling save with 11:55 to go to keep the lead, making another shortly thereafter. Eli Dillon (Fr., Portland, Ore.) rang one off the iron and again it was WPU who found the rebound. Brady Treloar (Fr., Portland, Ore., Business Management) then made a smooth pass to Romero, who shot one in for the hat-trick goal. Up 5-3, the Statesmen scored again with seven minutes to go, the goal coming from Ryan Epps (Fr., Portland, Ore., Mechanical Engineering) to make it 6-3. After another faceoff win for Swarts, Treloar fired in his third of the year to make it a four-goal lead. Epps made it two goals in under two minutes, taking the lead for the navy and gold up to 8-3. Montreat found an answer with 4:18 to go but WPU kept them off the board the rest of the half, taking the 8-4 advantage into the intermission.

William Penn led in the shot department 26-13 at the break, winning 6-8 draws, and fielding 14 ground balls compared to four won by the home side.

The third started with Ashton Johnson (Fr., Oregon City, Ore., General Accounting) forcing Gunn into making a save. The Statesmen continued to hound the Cavaliers in their own end, stopping the attempted clearance and getting two more shots away, though both missed wide. Dillon missed wide a minute later while Romero almost got one past Gunn on the second-chance opportunity. With just under eight minutes to go, Baliva netted another goal but that would be all the scoring for William Penn in the quarter. Montreat scored twice, cutting the lead to 9-6 entering the final 15 minutes.

Garigan made a stop just two minutes into the fourth to keep things steady on the scoreboard. At the other end, Johnson and Baliva each missed wide, with Standage missing as well during a long offensive spell by WPU. Eventually, the pressure proved to be too much for the Cavaliers, with Baliva scoring his own hat-trick goal to put William Penn up 10-6. Not long after that, Romero lanced in his fourth goal of the game, giving WPU a cushy 11-6 lead.

However, Montreat did not want to let the home crowd down, as they regrouped and made their own push. The made it 11-7 with 5:31 remaining in the game and after some tough defense, they scored again two minutes later. The Cavaliers scored once more with a couple minutes to go to make it 11-9 but from there, WPU locked down their own zone, with Garigan having to make only one more save the rest of the way. Garigan picked up his first win of the year, as did the Statesmen, in the 11-9 decision.

The navy and gold put up 50 shots on the day, compared to 31 for Montreat. WPU picked up 23 ground balls and went 17-22 in the faceoff category. They were also 11-13 on spotless clearances in the game but went 0-2 during extra-man opportunities.

Romero was unstoppable in the attacking zone, lead all players with 14 shots, nine on target, and four goals. Baliva had six shots, four on target, and three goals. Epps and Treloar each potted two goals, with Treloar getting the lone assist on the day. Swarts won 14 draws of the 18 he took while Garigan made nine saves.

“It was great to get the win to close out the trip,” said Head Coach Luke Christiansen. “Other than coaching internationally, I’ve never had a team play three days in a row and in that case, the other teams were playing back-to-back as well. Playing three home openers in three days against fresh and hungry opponents is hard. For our guys to grind out a win today and show really well yesterday, gives us a lot to work with heading into this bye week.”

Next Up: The team will travel back to Oskaloosa and get some time to work at home before they hit the road again in a couple weeks. They will play back-to-back games against Mount Vernon Nazarene and (6) Indiana Tech on February 20 and 21, respectively.