LEXINGTON, Va. – Washington and Lee jumped out to a 6-0 lead and cruised to a 12-5 victory over Baldwin Wallace in men's lacrosse action on Wednesday evening at Wilson Field.
 
Sophomore midfielder Leif Smith (Virginia Beach, Va. / Norfolk Academy) gave W&L (2-3) the early lead when he scored off an assist from sophomore midfielder Peter Sheehan III (Towson, Md. / St. Paul's) with 10:17 left in the opening quarter.  Junior midfielder Henry Holliday (Washington, D.C. / St. Albans) scored the next two goals, giving the Generals a 3-0 lead with 4:20 remaining in the first period.
 
Senior attackman Taylor Witherell (Wilmington, Del. / Salesianum) tacked on a goal at the 1:43 mark, and Smith scored his second tally of the first quarter with just 21 seconds remaining for a 5-0 lead.
 
First-year attackman Hillis Burns (Louisville, Ky. / St. Xavier) made it 6-0 with his third goal of the season, occurring at the 8:12 mark of the second quarter.
 
The Yellow Jackets (1-3) stopped the early bleeding with a goal by senior midfielder John Schulte off an assist from junior midfielder Olin Ferguson to make it a 6-1 game with 6:32 left in the half.  However, sophomore attackman Alex Brown (Norwalk, Conn. / Taft School) and Holliday both notched unassisted tallies in the final 5:08 for an 8-1 W&L advantage heading into the intermission.
 
W&L started the third period with a 1:00 man-up advantage, but the Yellow Jackets forced a turnover and scored man-down on a transition goal by junior midfielder Kyler Bylerly just 31 seconds into the frame.  W&L committed an offsides penalty less than two minutes later and BW took advantage by scoring a man-up goal from sophomore attackman Jake Nanosky to make it an 8-3 game with 12:42 left in the third quarter.
 
The Blue & White regained its composure and closed the quarter with goals by Witherell and Brown for a 10-3 lead entering the fourth quarter.
 
Junior attackman Hudson Pokorny (Darien, Conn. / Darien) sandwiched a pair of goals around two scores from the Yellow Jackets to provide the seven-goal final margin.
 
For the game, W&L held advantages of 53-30 in shots, 38-25 in ground balls and 14-6 in faceoffs.
 
Holliday finished with a team-high three goals and one assist, while Witherell had two goals and one helper.  Brown, Pokorny and Smith chipped in two goals each.  Junior midfielder Matt Gallagher (Lynchburg, Va. / E.C. Glass) won 9-of-12 faceoffs, while senior defenseman Michael Horgan (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Catholic) forced two of Baldwin Wallace's 21 turnovers.  Senior Nick Spagnoletti (Madison, N.J. / Madison) played all but the final 48 seconds in goal, producing eight saves.
 
Byerly's two goals paced the Yellow Jackets, while Ferguson posted a pair of assists.  Junior Joe Storner notched a game-high 19 saves in goal.

Washington and Lee returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Hampden-Sydney for its ODAC-opener at 4:30 pm.