Statesmen Claim Easy Win Over Midland
Fremont, Neb.–The William Penn men’s lacrosse team scored the first 21 goals of the day en route to a 25-2 non-conference thrashing of Midland Thursday.
#4 WPU (8-1), which has won six games in a row, completely dominated the contest, including posting a 73-10 advantage in shots.
The visitors could not be stopped, especially early as they tallied the first 21 shot attempted, headlined by a 20-0 count in the first stanza that saw the Statesmen lead 10-0 after the first 15 minutes of action.
Nine different players scored in the opening period with Max Taylor (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management) pacing the charge with two goals.
While its scoring was cut in half, William Penn was still unchallenged in the second quarter with five more unanswered goals.
The balanced navy and gold attack had six different visiting players beat the Warrior goalkeeper in the third period as WPU rolled out to a 21-0 edge.
MU (1-7) finally got on the board to close out the third period, but the final stanza was again all WPU with four of the last five scores.
Wyatt Christensen (So., Madison, Wis., Biology) topped the Statesmen with four goals and one assist, while Taylor, Eli Dillon (Sr., Portland, Ore., Business Management), and Boston Romero (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) all scored three goals. Romero also had an assist to his credit.
Breck Putzier (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Exercise Science), who finished with a team-high 10 ground balls, scored twice and assisted twice, while the duo of Kenny Bohney (So., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science) and Seth Read (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology) both ended the contest with two goals and one assist.
Collin Baliva (Sr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering), with one goal and one assist, had a part in multiple goals as well.
Max Standage (So., Gilbert, Ariz., Public Accounting) finished the win with eight ground balls; overall, the navy and gold had 64 ground balls, compared to just 35 for Midland.
Led by three caused turnovers from Blake Cyboron (So., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Civil Engineering), the Warriors committed 34 mistakes to only 16 for William Penn. Along with that, the Statesmen were successful in all 12 of their clears, while MU concluded the matchup at 11-for-19.
Ryan Swarts (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) was 10-for-21 in the faceoff circle, while the visiting crew narrowly won more faceoffs than it lost (16-for-31).
“Today was a very productive game in terms of shaking off some spring break rust and working on some new concepts,” Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. “We saw a lot of growth and development and I am excited to see what we can do in our final game before conference play starts.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Roseville, Minn. Saturday to face Northwestern (Minn.) in non-conference action at 2 p.m.
