HICKORY, N.C. -- Carson Sterling and Joe Buduo combined to score 11 goals and powered a 12-2 opening run to lead the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears (9-4, 7-0 SAC) to a 15-7 win over the Railsplitters (6-5, 2-5 SAC) in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action on Saturday in Hickory, North Carolina.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne, which pushed its winning streak to eight games and remained unbeaten in SAC play following the win, jumped all over Lincoln Memorial, scoring the first three goals of the match before carrying a 6-1 lead into the break, which eventually ballooned to a 12-2 advantage early in the fourth quarter.  
 
Sterling converted all six of his shots on goal, tallying a match-high six goals on 10 total shot attempts to lead the Bears. Buduo accounted for five goals on 10 shots and seven shots on goal. Mike Hanlon - the reigning AstroTurf SAC Player of the Week - added two goals and two assists on nine shots and seven shots on goal.
 
Billy Kopsky (Smithtown, N.Y.) and Kyle Arcuri (Patchogue, N.Y.) led the Railsplitters offensively, scoring two goals apiece on 12 combined shot attempts. Jared Courchene (Sagkeeng, Manitoba), Justin Stewart (Copiague, N.Y.) and Kyle Fleck (Toledo, Ohio) added the other three goals for Lincoln Memorial, which dropped its second straight SAC match.
 
Sterling scored the first five goals of the match for the Bears, finishing off his personal 5-1 run with a goal at the 7:34 mark of the second quarter. Kopsky provided the Railsplitters' only goal of the first half by finding the back of the net at the 4:46 mark of the first quarter.
 
Buduo notched the first of his five goals with just under three minutes left in the first half to send the Bears into the break with a 6-1 lead.
 
Coming out to start the second half, Buduo scored two goals less than a minute apart to increase Lenoir-Rhyne's lead to 8-1. Fleck briefly stopped the bleeding with his second goal of the season at the 9:34 mark of the third quarter, which trimmed the Bears' lead to 8-2. However, Buduo would score two more times over the next passage of play, while Hanlon bagged a goal with 1:42 left in the third to put L-R in front 11-2 after three.
 
The Railsplitters would pile up five goals in the final quarter, including two in the final four minutes of regulation, but it was not enough to overcome the high-powered Bears' offense, which generated four goals over the match's final 15 minutes to cap the 15-7 triumph.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne produced a 47-36 advantage in shot attempts, but the Railsplitters landed 24 shots on goal compared to 25 for the Bears. Lincoln Memorial got the better of the Bears in the possession metrics, accounting for a 48-41 edge in groundball recoveries while winning 14 of the 25 face-offs. The Railsplitters also went 15 for 18 on clears, but Lenoir-Rhyne went 19 for 22 in that department.
 
The Railsplitters were once again victimized by another spectacular performance in goal. After Mars Hill keeper Ryan Kearney made 18 saves last Saturday, L-R's Ryan Crompton allowed just seven goals with 15 saves. LMU keeper Joe Medel (Virginia Beach, Va.) slipped to 6-5 on the season after allowing 15 goals with nine saves in 60 minutes of work.
 
Lincoln Memorial wraps up the regular season and looks to clinch a spot in the SAC Championship field next Saturday, welcoming the Coker Cobras to Harrogate for a 1 p.m. match.