Mars Hill, NC - Lincoln Memorial men's lacrosse defeats the Mars Hill Lions Wednesday afternoon 21-9.
The Railsplitters began scoring early as
Gavin Reid scored off of
Alex Winters with 14:37 remaining. LMU continued their run with goals by
Domenico Moscato (assisted by
Jenson Jones) with 13:46 remaining and
Alex Wegrzyn (assisted by Winters) with 11:52 remaining. The Lions got their first goal on the board with 8:26 remaining, but that didn't stop Lincoln Memorial as at 6:04, Jones scored off of
Lucas Barsauskas, and at 5:00, Reid scored off of Jones. The back-and-forth pattern started as Mars Hill added a goal with 3:37 remaining, followed by LMU with Reid assisting Jones with 1:32 remaining. The Lions added their last goal of the quarter with 0:43 remaining, but Lincoln Memorial had the last say as Jones scored off of Reid, making the score 6-2 going into the second quarter.
Like the first, LMU scored first in the second as Jones passed the ball to Winters to score with 12:25 remaining. Mars Hill recorded their first scoring run of the match as they scored two goals throughout the next four minutes. The Railsplitters finished the first half strong, as they didn't allow Mars Hill to score any more goals, but added five of their own. Barsauskas scored with 6:52 remaining, Reid added a goal off of a Winters assist with 5:08 remaining, Wegrzyn scored with 4:03 remaining off of
Beckett O'Shea, Wegrzyn scored another goal with 3:16 remaining, assisted from Jones, and Winters finished off the half with a goal off of a Reid assist with 0:48 remaining. The score going into halftime was 13-5 with Lincoln Memorial having the advantage.
The Railsplitters stayed in control in the third quarter, opening the scoring with a goal from Winters off an assist by
Henry Boss at the 13:52 mark. Mars Hill answered with its sixth goal of the game at 11:52, but LMU quickly responded with a dominant stretch, scoring four straight goals in just over three minutes.
Domenico Moscato started the run, followed by another from Winters (assisted by
Koen Burdette), a goal by
Alex Wegrzyn (assisted by
Jenson Jones), and a finish from
Grant House. Mars Hill stopped the run with a goal at the 1:14 mark, but Lincoln Memorial answered back as
Gavin Reid found
Dakota Ayres for a goal with eight seconds left. The score gave LMU a 19-7 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Lincoln Memorial remained in control in the fourth quarter, opening the scoring with a goal from Bech off an assist by
Connor Blondin at the 13:05 mark. Mars Hill answered with goals at 12:09 and 10:06, but LMU closed out the game with a final score from
Connor Stevens to secure the 21-9 victory.
Wegrzyn and Jones led the team with seven shots each. Wegrzyn and Winters led with five shots on goal.
Brixten McKenzie led in ground balls with eight and dominated with 15 faceoffs. In goal,
Connor Fitzgibbon recorded 4 saves.
As a team, Lincoln Memorial took 48 shots, with 28 being on goal, 46 ground balls, 13 saves, 28 successful clears, and 19 won face offs.
With the win, Lincoln Memorial improves to 8-7 overall and 3-6 in conference play, and Mars Hill improves to 2-12 overall and 1-8 in the SAC.
The team will now await their seeding in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament.
