MOUNT OLIVE (Feb. 12) – After scoring seven unanswered goals in the second half, the Trojans collected a 12-6 victory over Virginia State on Wednesday evening in the home opener at Ray McDonald Sr. Sports Complex.
With the win, the University of Mount Olive men's lacrosse program improves to 1-1 overall to begin a four-game homestand in Mount Olive. The sides meet for the first time in program history as Virginia State enters its second season as a team. Meanwhile, VSU drops to 1-1 this season following a season-opening victory over Emory & Henry last week.
Freshman
Brayden Rieger led the Trojans with a four-point performance behind two goals and two assists on Wednesday. Fifth-year
Jack Lewis registered a hat trick with a pair of ground balls, while junior
Hudson Karasek tallied one goal and two assists. Junior
Joshua Dewart contributed one goal, two assists, four ground balls, and one caused turnover.
Virginia State scored the opening goal at the 8:39 mark before the Trojans countered with back-to-back goals. Graduate student transfer
Bubba Bowen recorded his first UMO goal off an assist by freshman
Jason Falso, 1-1. Karasek scored in the closing minutes of the first quarter to take a 2-1 advantage. At the beginning of the second quarter, VSU countered with consecutive goals to regain the lead by a 3-2 margin. Mount Olive answered with two goals on man-up opportunities by Dewart and Vanderkley to pull ahead, 4-3. Virginia State once again responded with two goals in the final six minutes before Lewis netted a goal at the 1:50 mark to head into halftime tied at 5-5.
Following a slow start to the third quarter, Mount Olive scored four straight goals in the final five-plus minutes to take a 9-5 advantage. Vanderkley and senior
Brady Laurance scored just nine seconds apart in the final 28 seconds of the third. In the fourth, the Trojans added three insurance goals with junior
Micaiah Boyle, Lewis, and Rieger all finding the back of the net. Virginia State scored in the final minute of the contest, as UMO captured a 12-6 win.
Junior goalkeeper
Kurtis Lensing finished with seven saves on 28 shots faced in 60 minutes of action. Redshirt senior
Josh Mauer claimed 17-of-22 faceoffs with four ground balls while Laurance totaled a team-leading 10 ground balls. Defensively, senior
Cameron Norton registered two caused turnovers with five ground balls.
Mount Olive returns to Ray McDonald Sr. Sports Complex on Saturday, Feb. 15 versus Newberry at 1 p.m.
