William Penn Cruises Past Braves in Heart Opener
Oskaloosa–Everett Breniser (So., Centennial, Colo., Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) produced one of the best distribution outings in program history as the Statesmen men’s lacrosse team rolled to a 28-2 Heart of America Athletic Conference-opening win over Ottawa (Kan.) Saturday.
No. 5 WPU (4-1, 1-0 Heart), which has now won three games in a row, outshot the Braves (1-7, 0-2 Heart) by an outstanding 92-11 tally, including putting 49 of those attempts on target.
Despite not having played since March 7, the navy and gold were a big sluggish early on in an afternoon where the temperature hovered near 90 degrees.
Harley Williams (Sr., Edmonton, Alberta, Political Science) put his team on the board just 102 seconds in off a pass from Breniser.
Max Barr (Jr., West Des Moines, Iowa, Business Management), off a feed from Kenny Bohney (Sr., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science), then doubled the advantage at the 10:15 mark, while Blake Cyboron (Sr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Industrial Technology) found the netting unassisted just 1:08 later.
Unfortunately, the offense went cold over the next nine minutes of play before Barr and Bohney closed out the opening quarter with a flurry, scoring back-to-back goals in the final 23 seconds of the stanza for a 5-1 Statesmen lead.
The scores started a run of 11 unanswered goals by WPU as it put nine past the OU goalkeeper in the second quarter. Breniser had a part in five of those with three goals and two assists, while Barr and Bohney each managed two goals and two assists.
The Braves opened the second half with its second and final goal, but never threatened the navy and gold. Williams then took over with a trio of scores, and Cage Fontana (So., Colorado Springs, Colo., Business Management) added two goals.
Breniser assisted twice in the third and then had a hand in five more scores in the fourth stanza. Two of those fourth-quarter goals came from Isaac Heitschmidt (Fr., Oregon City, Ore., Industrial Technology), who recorded three winners in the final 15 minutes. Williams tacked on two scores as well.
Breniser ended the bout with 10 assists along with three goals. Williams finished with six goals and an assist, while Barr posted five goals and three assists. Heitschmidt contributed four scores, while the trio of Bohney, Fontana, and Matt Scott (Fr., Denver, Colo., Sports Management) all matched Breniser with three goals. Bohney, like Barr, had three assists as well.
The Statesmen won 28 of the 34 faceoffs with Bryce Campbell (Sr., Meridian, Idaho, Kinesiology) going 11-for-13. Carter Holden (Fr., Idaho Falls, Idaho, Computer Science) also had success at 12-for-15.
In the lopsided victory, WPU was 12-for-14 in clears, while limiting Ottawa to a 12-for-31 effort. The navy and gold also won the ground ball battle 39-8 and committed just 17 turnovers (37 for the Braves). Campbell paced the victors with eight ground balls, while Lucas Cox (Fr., Memphis, Tenn., Kinesiology) caused four turnovers.
“We have a lot to clean up from today before we get into the meat of conference play,” Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. “With that said, I am proud of our young guys for stepping up and taking advantage of their opportunities.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Dubuque next Wednesday to face Clarke in Heart action at 2 p.m.
