Lions drop fifth straight with loss to Coker
The Mars Hill men's lacrosse team was defeated by South Atlantic Conference foe Coker, 11-6, at the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium Saturday afternoon.
MARS HILL, N.C. - The Mars Hill men's lacrosse team was defeated by South Atlantic Conference foe Coker, 11-6, at the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Entering the fourth quarter down 9-2, the Lions began a comeback bid, scoring the first four goals of the frame. At 3:52 of the fourth, Zac Carrigan scored his fourth goal of the season to begin the Mars Hill scoring run. Two and a half minutes later, Josh Bryers pulled the Lions within five with his fourth of the season. Jake Trafton ripped a low-to-high shot under the right elbow from the right side with 5:56 left in the game. Dima Ferreira assisted on all three goals. To pull the Lions within three, 50 seconds after Trafton's seventh of the year, Connor Fernandes tucked the ball behind Chris Hagy with a behind-the-back goal for the Lions' sixth goal of the contest.
Coker would add two insurance goals with under three minutes remaining. Ethan Irizarry's hat-trick tally was his 14th of the season and 1:07 later, Rylee Marsh's fourth marker of the game, also his 14th of the season, secured the Cobras' 11-6 win.
Marsh and Irizarry scored the lone goals in the opening stanza, less than a minute apart. With 4:54 left in the first quarter, Marsh broke the 0-0 deadlock. Fifty-eight seconds later, Irizarry doubled the Coker lead.
After trading goals ten seconds apart in the first 22 seconds of the second quarter, Coker reeled off five straight goals heading into halftime to hold an 8-1 edge after 30 minutes. Charles Stafford opened the scoring, but Ferreira answered with his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Alex Lipsky. Matt Murphy's two markers with 10:48 and 10:39 left in the half put the Cobras up 5-1. Andrew Dappen, Marsh and Irizarry would go on to score in a 3:31 to carry a seven-goal lead into the half.
The teams traded goals in the third, with Fernandes scoring his first of the game at 8:47. With 14 seconds left in the frame, Marsh's hat-trick goal reestablished the seven-goal advantage heading into the final 15 minutes.
Ferreira led the Lions with four points (1g, 3a). Marsh (4g, 1a) led all players with five points in the contest followed by Irizarry (3g, 1a) and Murphy's (2g, 2a) four points.
Chris Hagy made 12 saves to earn the victory. Ryan Kearney stopped 13 shots in the loss.
The Lions return to action on Wednesday, March 28 with a home contest versus Lincoln Memorial. First faceoff is set for a 2 p.m. start.