Lions Hold Off Coker For First Conference Win

HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Mars Hill (3-5, 1-4 SAC) men's lacrosse team picked up its first conference win, defeating Coker College (3-7, 1-4 SAC) by the final of 15-11 on Sunday afternoon at the Coker Athletic Field.

Dima Ferreira, Spencer Andrews, and Connor Fernandes led the Lions with three goals each while Alex Lipsky and Hunter Maggs contributed two apiece. Nathan Stewart added three assists to go along with his game-high six groundballs. Asyck Schildt and Kyle Dozzi anchored the defense with four caused turnovers each. Rylee Marsh scored four goals in the losing effort for the Cobras while Vinny Magro added five assists.

Mars Hill forced 25 turnovers on the day and led the Cobras 39-33 in shot attempts. Coker won 19-of-29 at the center "X", while MHU collected four more groundballs (41-37) than CC.

The Lions wasted no time getting on the board as leading scorer Lipsky found the back of the cage after a beautiful pass from Josh Bryers during a man-up opportunity at the 12:58 mark of the first quarter.

However, Coker tied the contest with seven minutes remaining in the opening period after a goal by Denton Wilks and two minutes later took its first lead following a score by Patrick Timothee. Garrett Kilgore made the score 3-1 in favor of the Cobras with an extra-man goal with 1:43 left in the first.

Mars Hill then went on a 3-0 run of its own to retake the lead at 4-3 just minutes into the second quarter. Dima Ferreira got the scoring started with a goal at the 1:18 point of the first and Fernandes blasted one past the keeper with 14 ticks left in the first 15. Hunter Maggs added an unassisted goal five minutes into the second frame.

With the score knotted at 5-all, Mars Hill reeled off four straight, spanning seven minutes of clock time, to take a 9-5 lead with 13:41 on the third quarter clock. During the scoring run four different players tallied a goal for the Blue and Gold.  

Coker's Rylee Marsh stopped the run with a goal at the 13:18 mark, but Fernandes added his second goal of the contest to regain the four-goal lead (10-6) for MHU. However, Marsh was at it again for Coker, adding his second and third scores of the contest to trim the Lions lead to 10-8 heading into the final quarter.

The Cobras opened the fourth with a goal to cut the deficit to a single point (10-9), but Mars Hill took control of the game once more, scoring four straight goals to push out to a comfortable 14-9 margin with 7:18 remaining in the contest. Andrews and Chase PrettiPearsall notched their first goals of the contest during the run, while Ferreira and Fernandes found the back of the net for the third time each during the crucial run.

Coker added two goals in a span of three minutes to trim the gap to 14-11, but Andrews put the final touches on the win, scoring his third goal of the contest with 37 seconds remaining in the game.

Ryan Kearney (3-5) picked up the win after playing all 60 minutes in goal, collecting 15 saves. Anthony Malik (3-6) was tagged with the loss after allowing 15 goals on 39 shots and tallying 10 saves.

The Lions will return to the field on April 9 as they play host to the Railsplitters of Lincoln Memorial. Faceoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Ammons Family Athletic Center.