Upset Bid Falls Short As Lions Lose to No. 19 Queens

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill men's lacrosse team was denied an upset of No. 19 Queens University on Saturday afternoon at Meares Stadium. The Royals used a strong fourth period to escape the upset-minded Lions by a final of 8-5. Mars Hill falls to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the South Atlantic Conference, while Queens improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the league.

Queens outshot the Lions by a total of 40-23 and collected seven more groundballs (41-34) than the Blue and Gold. Jonathan Paige was a key figure for the Royals as he won 13-of-17 faceoffs. The game was filled with turnovers with Mars Hill recording 24 and Queens finished with 23.

Alex Lipsky led the Lions offense with two goals and one assist. Jake Trafton added a goal and an assist, while Connor Fernandes and Keaton Lissel chipped in one goal each. Ryan Kearney tallied a team-high six groundballs and Dima Ferreira added five grounders. Kyle Dozzi was a hawk to the ball, collecting three caused turnovers on the afternoon.

Garrett Sadler and Reed Murphy led the Royals with two goals each, while Paige added a game-high 11 groundballs.

The start of the contest was slow as each team could not gain a definitive advantage on the offensive side of the field. Fernandes changed that at the 5:18 mark, taking a nice pass from Lipsky and blasting it past the keeper for a 1-0 lead. Lipsky called his own number with 46 ticks left on the first quarter clock as he was found in front of the net by Nathan Stewart and put the Lions ahead 2-0 after one.

After 24 minutes of scoreless lacrosse, Queens finally got on the board when Reed Murphy took it by himself and beat the keeper to cut the Lions lead in half with 6:10 remaining before the half. That same score followed the teams into the locker room.

Lipsky wasted no time giving Mars Hill a two-goal lead out of the break, collecting a pass from Trafton and posting it to the back of the net at the 13:39 point of the third. Griffin Stechmiller came back with a goal of his own with 5:32 remaining to make the score 3-2 in favor of the home team. Back-to-back goals from Lissel and Trafton pushed the Lions lead to 5-2 with less than two minutes before the fourth. Queens added a late goal to send the teams to the final frame with Mars Hill up 5-3.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Royals, outscoring MHU 5-0 to rally back and win the contest 8-5. Three goals in a span of five minutes gave QU its first lead and the Royals tacked on two more late in the contest to set the final score.

Ryan Kearney (2-3) took the loss, playing all 60 minutes in goal. He collected 10 saves, while allowing the eight goals. Anthony Caruso (4-2) earned the win after allowing only five goals and saving six balls.

The Lions will return to action after a one week hiatus, traveling to Salisbury, N.C. to take on the Indians of Catawba College. Faceoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.