Statesmen Power Past Columbia to Earn Home Tournament Game
Columbia, Mo.–The William Penn men’s lacrosse team will enter postseason play as one of the hottest teams in the country as it dropped Columbia 16-5 in Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference action Tuesday.
WPU (11-4, 7-3 KCAC), which extended its school record for consecutive wins to seven, will now host Columbia on Saturday in the KCAC Tournament Quarterfinals (time to be determined). The navy and gold will be the #4 seed, while CC will be the #5 seed.
In their first-ever win over the Cougars (8-6, 7-3 KCAC), the Statesmen avenged last year’s 14-7 KCAC Tournament semifinal loss.
The opening 15 minutes were tight with WPU owning a slight 3-2 advantage, but the visitors owned the remainder of the contest with a 13-3 edge. William Penn outshot Columbia 56-36, but managed just 25 shots on goal (18 for CC). To put it simply, though, when the Statesmen put the ball on goal, they were quite good (64% success rate). On the other end, Jeremy Smith (Sr., Camano Island, Wash., Sociology) was incredible in front of his cage, stopping 13 of the 18 shots put on frame (72% save rate).
Ryan Swarts (So., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) was equally impressive as WPU’s faceoff specialist, winning 11 of his 14 attempts. Joshua Bell (Fr., Castle Rock, Colo.) was above 50% as well, taking six of his 10 faceoffs. All of those extra opportunities were integral in the visiting team pulling away as the Statesmen won 10 of the 11 first-half faceoffs (16-for-25 overall).
It was Brady Treloar (So., Portland, Ore., Business Management) and Breck Putzier (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn.) all day as they combined for 10 scores and all three of the first-quarter goals. Putzier tallied the initial score unassisted 3:14 into the afternoon, but Columbia answered with back-to-back tallies. The Statesmen found their bearings at the end of the stanza, though, as Putzier and Treloar both scored unassisted in the final three minutes.
Treloar, with an assist from Eli Dillon (So., Portland, Ore.), opened up the second-quarter scoring, while Boston Romero (So., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) and Jon Bell (Fr., Castle Rock, Colorado) tacked on unassisted goals for a 6-3 WPU intermission lead.
The visiting crew made even more adjustments at the break and put three balls past the CC goalkeeper in the first 4:10 of the third period. Treloar had two goals, while Carter Lucas (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn., Mechanical Engineering) had the other; Putzier helped with two winners.
Columbia trimmed the margin to 9-4 at the midway point, but a trio of Putzier goals removed all doubt of a navy and gold triumph. Tim Pennington (So., Boise, Idaho, Biology) also found the netting with an assist to Dexter Tedesco (Fr., Helena, Mont.), while Treloar, Joshua Bell, and Collin Baliva (So., St. Louis, Mo.) assisted on Putzier’s tallies.
Romero, Putzier, and Baliva wrapped up William Penn’s scoring (Treloar assist on Putzier’s goal) in the final quarter.
“This was a great way to end the regular season as we earned a home tournament game,” Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. “It is now time for us to tighten up some things and work on getting win #12.”
