LEXINGTON, Va. – The No. 11 Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team raced out to a 10-0 lead into the second quarter to fly past Elmhurst by a 22-10 final score on Wednesday evening at Wilson Field.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Generals' (5-3) first 10 goals of the game came across the opening 25:22 of play, with senior
Alex Brown leading the charge with five goals of his own. The Blue Jays (6-2) finally got on the scoreboard with 3:00 left in the first half, but they added an additional two scores before the second quarter ended.
W&L struck first in the third quarter, as sophomore
James Haley scored unassisted at the 10:55 mark, but Elmhurst continued to chip away at its deficit with three more goals, two from Eli Spence, until 3:50 remained in the third. Brown then restored life to the Generals' offense when he found the back of the next with 56 seconds left in the third quarter for his sixth goal of the game, which sparked a 6-0 run into the fourth.
Brown scored his seventh and final goal with 14:47 remaining in the game, while Haley scored twice during the 6-0 run. The W&L lead grew to as high as 14 goals (21-7) following a score from
Ben Irmscher with 4:12 remaining. The Blue Jays finished the contest with three scores in the final 94 seconds, while W&L senior
Perry Kramer scored with 24 seconds left for his first collegiate goal.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Brown's seven goals marked a new career-high for the senior attackman, and he added six ground balls and three caused turnovers as well. Haley matched Brown in points with seven (4g, 3a), while junior
Hillis Burns (2g, 2a) and senior
Michael Ott (4a) both tallied four points. First-year
Andrew Keller rounded out the multi-goal scorers from W&L with a hat trick.
Collectively, the Generals went 21-of-36 on face-offs, with first-year
Tyler Spano winning a team-high nine and scooping up six ground balls. Senior
Jed Heald led the defense and tied Brown for the team high with three caused turnovers, and he also picked up five ground balls. Junior
Matthew Ezzell and first-year
Ryan Donahue were two other W&L defensemen who tallied multiple ground balls and caused turnovers (2gb, 2ct) each.
Spence led the Elmhurst attack with four goals, followed by three from Hunter Hernandez. Gabe Henry had a team-best eight ground balls, while goalie Andrew Lacksonen picked up four ground balls.
Between the pipes, Lacksonen played all 60 minutes and made 11 saves. W&L first-year
Nick De Cain played the first 41:10 and made five saves, before giving way to senior
Ryan Aljader, who went 5-for-6 on saves over the next 14:38.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
Brown's seven goals not only set a new career high, it was the second-highest single-game goal total in program history, trailing the record of eight last achieved by Cam Lewis '15 on February 21, 2015. Additionally, Brown is up to 109 goals in his career, and he can move into the program's all-time Top 10 with three more scores.
TEAM STATS:
W&L held positive margins in the game in total shots (56-30), ground balls (46-31) and clear percentage (95.8-72.7).
UP NEXT:
The Generals will return to action on Saturday when they get back into ODAC play with a 1:00 p.m. start against Guilford. Prior to the opening face-off, the team will honor its 15-player senior class.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
