Lacrosse Survives Brevard

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill Lions lacrosse team won its second-consecutive match as they were able to down conference foe Brevard on Wednesday, April 06 at Meares Stadium. MHU improves to 2-8 overall and 2-4 within the conference while Brevard drops to 1-11, 0-6.

Chase Pretti-Pearsall and Dylan Livingston led the way offensively with two goals each while Paxton Turner added seven ground balls to go along with three caused turnovers. Josh Bryers was a facilitator all afternoon, dishing out a game-high five assists and adding a goal. Ryan Kearney played all 60 minutes between the pipes, collecting six ground balls and 10 saves for the win.

After several missed opportunities, the Lions finally broke through at the 7:15 mark as Bryers found the back of the net on a nice assist from Dima Ferriera to give the home team a 1-0 lead. Just over one minute later Livingston blasted his first goal of the season to push the Blue and Gold ahead 2-0.

Brevard got on the board with just under a minute to play in the first quarter to cut the deficit in half heading to the second frame. A beautiful score from Pretti-Pearsall followed by Livingston's second goal one minute later set the score at 4-1. BC connected on another score and Austin Bouchard tallied a goal with 1:27 remaining in the first half to send the teams into the intermission with Mars Hill leading 5-2.

The Tornado struck first in the second half with a pair of unassisted goals from Alex Bazzell to narrow the margin to 5-4 with 9:27 left in the third. A.J. Seip came right back to scorch a ball past the keeper to establish a two-goal lead for the Lions. The game became a stalemate over the next eight and a half minutes as neither team could muster any offense.

Bazzell once again cut the lead to a single goal with 8:41 left, but the Lions came right back as Kyle Dozzi picked a great time for his first goal of the season followed by a man-up goal from Pretti-Pearsall to stretch the lead to 8-5. Brevard added a late goal to make the final score 8-6 in favor of the Lions.

Brevard held a slight advantage on shots (36-34), but Mars Hill held a big advantage on groundballs (37-22). Addison Sowell was able to win 10-16 at the center "X", including 4-4 in a pivotal fourth quarter.

The Lions will continue their late-season push on Saturday, April 9 as they travel to take on Lincoln-Memorial. The match is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.