MOUNT OLIVE (Feb. 15) – The Trojans were unable to prevent a fourth-quarter surge on Saturday afternoon in an 11-8 loss against Lincoln Memorial in non-conference play at Ray McDonald Sr. Sports Complex.
With the loss, the University of Mount Olive men's lacrosse program drops to 1-2 overall after playing its last two contests at home. It marked the first-ever meeting between the sides in program history. Meanwhile, Lincoln Memorial improves to 2-1 this season after facing a pair of Conference Carolinas opponents this season.
Junior
Benjamin Vanderkley recorded four points on two goals and two assists with four ground balls. Junior
Hudson Karasek posted his second career hat-trick, while sophomore
Mikey Stavrianakis opened his scoring account with a pair of goals on Saturday.
In the first quarter, Mount Olive started the game off with an individual effort by fifth-year
Jack Lewis to score his sixth goal of the season. The Railsplitters countered with back-to-back goals to bring the game to 2-1 at the 8:26 mark of the first quarter. Mount Olive responded with goals by Karasek and Stavrianakis just over a minute apart to regain a 3-2 edge. The first quarter ended with a goal by Lincoln Memorial with 24 seconds left to tie the contest, 3-3. In the second quarter, Stavrianakis scored in the opening minutes to take a 4-3 lead, but LMU scored three times in the final five minutes to go into the break ahead by a 6-4 margin.
The Railsplitters built the advantage to 7-4 in the opening moments of the third before Karasek and Vanderkley each scored to trim the deficit to 7-6 at the 4:49 mark. Lincoln Memorial sneaked a goal in with 2:20 left on the clock to head into the final quarter with a two-goal lead. In the fourth, Vanderkley closed the gap to 8-7 in the opening minutes on a man-up goal off an assist by freshman
Brayden Rieger. LMU managed to once again pull away with three-straight goals before Karasek completed the hat trick in the final minute, 11-8.
Junior
Kurtis Lensing suffered the loss in the cage following nine saves on 28 shots faced in 59 minutes of action. Freshman
Roman Barranello played the final minute of the contest in his first collegiate action. Redshirt senior
Josh Mauer finished 11-of-18 on faceoffs with a pair of ground balls.
Defensively, senior
Alan Usher forced three caused turnovers with two ground balls while fellow senior
Cameron Norton and
Davin Ikert each tallied two caused turnovers.
The next game for the Trojans will be on Saturday, Feb. 22, against Newberry in a non-conference game at the Ray McDonald Sr. Sports Complex at noon.
