MOUNT OLIVE (April 2) – Behind a dominant offensive performance on Wednesday evening, the Trojans secured an 18-4 victory over Chowan in Conference Carolinas play at Ray McDonald Sr. Sports Complex.
With the win, the University of Mount Olive men's lacrosse program improves to 5-6 this season with a 4-2 record in conference action. The Trojans clinch a spot in the Conference Carolinas Tournament and hold the No. 3 seed entering the final two weeks of the regular season. Meanwhile, Chowan falls to 1-8 overall behind a 0-4 mark in league play.
Senior
Brady Laurance became just the second player in program history to eclipse 200 career ground balls after scooping up nine on Wednesday versus Chowan. He currently sits second all-time in the record book with 205 ground balls.
Junior
Benjamin Vanderkley matched a career-high with five goals while contributing one caused turnover and one ground ball. Freshman
Tyler Michael produced a five-point performance with one goal and four assists, while fellow freshman
Brayden Rieger tallied four goals and four ground balls.
The Trojans scored five unanswered goals in the opening quarter with graduate student
Bubba Bowen getting on the scoreboard first at the 11:27 mark. Senior
Jack Lewis and Vanderkley combined for three goals in under two minutes before freshman
Jason Falso scored in the closing seconds to build a 5-0 lead. Chowan responded with back-to-back goals to begin the second quarter to trim the deficit to 5-2, but Rieger and Bowen countered with a goal each to head into halftime with a 7-2 advantage.
The UMO offense erupted in the third quarter with seven goals in the span of 13 minutes, with the Trojans featuring five different goal scorers. Vanderkley and Rieger both rattled the back of the cage twice while Lewis, junior
Hudson Karasek, and senior
Jakson Bowran each added a goal to take a significant 14-2 lead. Chowan managed to close the gap with a goal in the final minutes to trail 14-3 heading into the fourth. The Trojans would ultimately tally four more in the final quarter, including goals from sophomore
Jake Pagliarini and Michael to capture an 18-4 win.
Junior goalkeeper
Kurtis Lensing captured the win after collecting six saves in three quarters of action, while freshman
Roman Barranello tallied four saves in the fourth. Defensively, fifth-year
Tanner Meijas led the Trojans with three caused turnovers. Senior
Cameron Wilt finished with two caused turnovers while graduate student
Zachary Taylor recorded two caused turnovers and four ground balls.
The Trojans outshot the opponent by a 67-23 margin and went a perfect 26-of-26 on clearances.
Mount Olive concludes the regular season on Saturday, April 12, with a Conference Carolinas matchup at Emmanuel set to begin at noon.
