Mars Hill battles tough, falls to No. 10 Queens

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill men's lacrosse team (3-9, 0-6 SAC) battled valiantly against No. 10 Queens (10-1, 5-0 SAC) Saturday afternoon inside the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium, but fell by a score of 24-17.

Mars Hill jumped out to an impressive 4-1 lead in the first six minutes of play with Zac Carrigan scoring twice.  Following a Royals' timeout, The Lions went on to score three of the next four goals to hold a 7-2 lead with 4:50 left in the frame.  Mars Hill tacked on two more goals while Queens struck once in the final 4:04 of the first stanza.

Trailing 9-4, the Royals offense found another level and outscored Mars Hill 8-2 in the second quarter.  After scoring two of the first three markers, the Royals reeled off six straight goals to take their first lead of the contest with 2:15 remaining in the half.  Carrigan recorded his fourth goal of the half with 22 seconds remaining to knot the game at 11, but with six seconds on the clock, Kealan Pilon provided the Royals a 12-11 advantage.

The Royals picked up in the second half where they had left off, scoring three of the first four goals to go up 15-12 with under 10 minutes left in the frame.  The teams matched each other's outputs with Mars Hill entering the final frame down by three goals.  Connor Fernandes scored twice in the third.

The Lions pulled within two as Jake Trafton netted his 22^nd goal of the season with 11:52 left in the game, however, a 5-0 run sealed the victory for Queens as Mackenzie Talent struck twice.

Both Tallant and Pilon recorded three goals and two assists for the Royals while Reed Murphy scored twice and added three assists.  Trafton led all players with seven points (3g, 4a) while Carrigan (5g) and Spencer Andrews (3g, 2a) added five points apiece.

The Lions wrap up non-conference play on the road when they take on Emmanuel on Wednesday, April 10^th.  Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.