BANNER ELK, North Carolina– The No.12 University of Mount Olive men's lacrosse powered past the Bobcats of Lees-McRae College 17-7  in Conference Carolinas action Saturday afternoon in Banner Elk, N.C. The UMO men's Lacrosse team claimed a share of the 2021 Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship and secured the No. 1 Seed in the Conference Carolinas Championship.
 
INSIDE THE SCORE
Lees-McRae won the opening face-off but Jake Mackenzie caused a turnover to gain back possession for the Trojans. Mount Olive had three opportunities to score but the Bobcats defense was able to shut down the Trojan offense causing them to turnover the ball and put one up on the scoreboard by Craig Barr to take the early lead 1-0 at the 13:12 mark. UMO answered back in less than a minute as Chaz Goodman found Chance Urban to tie the game up  1-1. The Trojans went on a 2-1 run to take the lead by one with 4:42 remaining in the quarter. The Bobcats continued to put up a good fight as they found an opportunity to score by capitalizing off of a man-up situation. LMC's Ryan Beauchamp found an opening and tied the game 3-3 at the 2:30 mark. Freshman Aidan Lalonde put the ball in the back of the net making it his 21st goal of the season and helped the Trojans take the lead 4-3 as the first quarter drew to a close.

In the second quarter, Mike Marto won the face-off for the Trojans and added one to the scoreboard by Zachary Taylor leading 5-3 with 14:13 remaining. Mount Olive's Connor Watson came out hot, scoring three unanswered goals in a row making it his 18th goal of the season and helped put the Trojans in a comfortable lead 8-3 at the 9:51 mark. The Trojans continued to find their momentum as they scored six more unanswered goals leading 14-3 going into the break. Trojans goals were made by Parker Beaudry with two, Dylan Brunk, Aidan Lalonde, Elijah Cobb and Tim Collins with one goal each, along with three individual assists by Tim Collins, Matthew Ateshian, and Cameron Bope. 

In the third quarter, Mount Olive scored twice as Dylan Brunk found Lalonde and Jarrid Johnson found Watson to help extend the Trojans lead by thirteen points with 4:18 remaining. The Bobcats were able to put one more up on the scoreboard by Mike Moore, but still trailed behind 16-4 going into the final quarter. 

In the final quarter, Mount Olive's Zachary Taylor found Max Quinn to put one more on the board at the 7:49 mark leading 17-4. The Bobcats fought hard as they went on a 3-0 run to help try and close the deficit, but there was no coming back as the Trojans took home the 17-7 win.

MOUNT OLIVE LEADERS
The Trojans were led by Connor Watson with five goals putting him at 19 goals overall this season. Freshmen Aidan Lalonde had three goals putting him at 23 overall goals this season. Mike Marto won 12-16 face-offs and Josh Mauer won 8-11 face-offs.

BOBCATS LEADERS
Lees-McRae were led by J.P. Galloway with two goals.

KEY MOMENT
The key moment of the game was in the second quarter when the Trojans went on a 9-0 run to close the game and took home the 17-7 victory. 

Up Next: 
Mount Olive will take the No. 1 seed into the Conference Carolinas Men's Lacrosse Championship with a bye into the semifinals Thursday April 22nd against an opponent to be determined. The championships this year are hosted by North Greenville in Tigerville, S.C