Lacrosse Beats Belmont Abbey in Rain Storm

MARS HILL, N.C. - The Belmont Abbey men's lacrosse team fell to the seventh-ranked Mars Hill Lions by a 10-6 score Wednesday afternoon at Alumni Field. The game was played in a consistent downpour with gusting winds. Mars Hill moves to 4-1, while the Abbey drops to an even 3-3.

Mars Hill outshot the Abbey 29-20 and held advantages in ground balls (42-31) and face-off wins (10-9) as the Lions received three goals from Tyler Farmer, which tied for the game-high. Jamie Raezer added two, while Eric Benesh, Kile Garrett, Ben Demarco, Blake Mattinson and Jason Messineo all finished with one. T.J. Cowx handed out three assists. Benesch had two and Souers totaled one in the victory.

Tanner Scharr led the Abbey with three goals, while Nick Boylan, Matt Spivey and Ryan Corrigan all had one. Dan Morrissey handed out two assists and Scotty Steele had one.

The conditions affected the start of the game, as Messineo scored the only goal of the first quarter, coming at the 6:12 mark. Both teams had just six shots in the opening 15 minutes. Both teams heated up in the second quarter, as each side scored three goals apiece. Mattinson moved the lead to 2-0 at the 12:23 mark, but Corrigan struck back with the Abbey's first goal just 29 seconds later to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Farmer countered with two-straight goals to move the lead to 4-1, but the Abbey closed the scoring with two unanswered goals, the final one by Boylan with one second left in the half to cut the Lions lead to 4-3.

The Lions pulled away in the third quarter, as they outscored the Crusaders 5-0, with all five goals coming from five different players.
The Crusaders battled back in the fourth, outscoring the Lions 3-1 in the frame, cutting the lead to as few as 9-6. Scharr scored two of his goals in the period, while Spivey registered his at the 7:47 mark.

Raezer closed the scoring with 52 seconds left, burying a man-up goal on a feed from Souers to close the scoring.
Alex Gavilla won ten of 19 face-offs for the Lions and finished with two ground balls. Chris Cudmore led Mars Hill with seven caused turnovers and six ground balls. Goalkeeper Dylan Price finished with five ground balls to go along with eight saves.
Brian Watson led the Abbey with seven ground balls as he won seven of 14 face-offs. Tony Kikola made 12 saves in the net.

MHC will host No. 3 Limestone College on Saturday, March 12. Game time in the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium is set for 1 p.m.