DANVILLE, Va. – Senior
Hudson Pokorny (Darien, Conn. / Darien) racked up a program-record tying eight assists while surpassing the 100 career points mark to highlight the 11th-ranked Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team's 31-1 victory at Averett on Saturday afternoon.
The Generals improve to 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the ODAC with the win, while dropping the Cougars to 3-9 overall and 1-6 in conference play. The team's 31 goals tied the program record set on April 16 of last season in a 31-2 win over Ferrum, while the win margin of 30 established a new record which was set in that Ferrum game a year ago.
Seven of Pokorny's eight assists came in the first half, including on each of the team's first three scores within the first three minutes of play. Four different scorers found the back of the net for the Blue and White in just over four minutes, before the Cougars tallied their lone goal at the 10:53 mark from Dawson Hobbs.
Junior
Michael Ott (West Newbury, Mass. / St. John's Prep) (one goal, two assists) then had a hand in three of W&L's next four goals, before Pokorny scored for the first time at 6:40 in the first. Junior
Leif Smith (Virginia Beach, Va. / Norfolk Academy) notched the team's 10th goal of the opening frame for a nine-goal lead.
Pokorny tacked on another four helpers in the second quarter, while junior
Alex Brown (Norwalk, Conn. / Taft School) was the team's leading scorer in the second with three goals, all of which came in a 3:06 span. The lead swelled to 19-1 before halftime on Pokorny's second goal of the game, and his final assist came on an
A.J. Levitt (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. / The Benjamin School) score with 10:39 remaining in the third. With that assist, Pokorny became the first player for the program to reach double-digit points in a game since A.J. Witherell '19 tallied 11 on March 27, 2019.
Levitt's goal on the Pokorny assist was his second of three straight goals for the team, as seven different players combined for the final eight goals of the game after that point. Leading the final flurry was junior
Justin Le (San Jose, Calif. / Bellarmine Prep) with two goals and first-year
Ben Irmscher (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Catholic) with a goal and an assist.
Pokorny entered the game at 94 points in his career, and he reached the triple-digit mark on an assist to Brown with 11:41 left in the second quarter. Pokorny was the first player to log at least seven assists in a game since Witherell's 11-point outing, and Pokorny's eight assists tied the program mark set on April 2, 1957, by Dick Moore.
Three other players joined Pokorny with at least five points on the day, as Ott had two goals and three assists, Levitt scored three times and assisted twice and Brown logged five scores and a helper. First-year
Ethan Villamater (Lutherville, Md. / Gilman School) also had a strong scoring day with a trio of assists, all of which came in the third quarter.
Senior
Matt Gallagher (Lynchburg, Va. / E.C. Glass) and junior
Will Bou (Chevy Chase, Md. / Landon) each took 18 face-offs and combined to go 32-of-36, with Gallagher posting a perfect 18-for-18 performance with 12 ground balls. Bou prevailed on 14-of-18 face-offs and picked up nine ground balls. In goal, all four of W&L's goalkeepers played one quarter each. Senior
Warren Seeds (Atlanta, Ga. / Westminster) played the first quarter to earn the win, while junior
Ryan Aljader (Levittown, N.Y. / Chaminade) (2) and sophomore
Keene Cornick (Alexandria, Va. / St. Stephen's & St. Agnes) (1) combined for the three team saves.
Defensively, nine different players caused one turnover each for the Blue and White, while the team forced Averett into 26 total turnovers.
Hobbs' goal came on his only shot for the Cougars, and it was assisted by Tyler Duffey, who added a ground ball. Angel Pascual Roman tallied three ground balls and a caused turnover, and Jay Etheridge picked up four ground balls with one caused turnover as well. Cameron Prutzman was the goalkeeper of record for Averett and he made 21 saves on 50 shots in 56:06 of action.
W&L held a 67-7 advantage in shots in the game, with a 52-4 margin in shots on goal. The Generals also committed eight fewer turnovers than the Cougars and grabbed 61 ground balls to 21 for the home side.
The Generals will return to action on Tuesday with a 7:00 pm start at Roanoke College in a pivotal matchup for both teams' ODAC Tournament seeding.
