Statesmen Fall Just Short of Knocking off Top-10 Keiser
Black Mountain, N.C.–The William Penn men’s lacrosse team had a shot at a signature win, but failed to keep pace in the second half in a 10-6 loss to Keiser (Fla.) in non-conference play Saturday.
WPU (4-3) was outshot just 36-34 in a tight battle with the Seahawks (5-0).
The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair with KU scoring first at the 13:25 mark. That was followed up by another Seahawk goal to take an early 2-0 edge. The navy and gold responded, however, with a goal of their own by Kenny Bohney (Fr., Moorhead, Minn.) via Nate Blasingame (So., Portland, Ore., Business Management). Moments later, an unassisted goal from Breck Putzier (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) tied the game up at 2-2. The deadlock unfortunately did not last long as Keiser closed the first quarter with a goal.
The Seahawks put another goal on the board halfway through the second stanza to extend their lead, but a goal from Putzier (helper from Blasingame) was followed by a goal from Tim Pennington (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Biology) to knot the game at 4-4 going into halftime.
The third quarter was one to forget for the Statesmen as the Seahawks outscored WPU 4-0, forcing the squad to produce a nearly-perfect ending to complete the comeback.
Unfortunately, William Penn was solid, but not perfect. Wyatt Christensen (Fr., Madison, Wis., Biology) put away a goal off a pass from Brady Treloar (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management). A couple minutes later, the Hawks matched Christensen’s goal as the clock became the enemy of the navy and gold.
With 6:09 remaining in the contest, William Penn closed to within three on Putzier’s successful shot from Jeff Kohl (Fr., Gilbert, Ariz., Business Management), but it would get no closer as KU wrapped up the scoring with a score at the at the 2:13 mark.
WPU struggled in the faceoff circle only winning four of 19 tries. The two bright spots for the navy and gold in the loss was on clears as the Statesmen finished 17-for-21 and turnovers (William Penn had 16, compared to 24 for the Seahawks).
Eric Garigan (Jr., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science) paced the defense with nine saves in the loss.
Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa next Saturday for its home opener against Missouri Baptist in non-conference play at 2 p.m.
