By Joshua J. Darling, Sports Information Director
CONWAY, Ark. – In a game where there was no shortage of offense on either side, LaGrange (1-1, 0-0 USA South) dropped a 20-13 decision at Hendrix (2-0, 0-0 SAA) in an NCAA Division III men's lacrosse game on Saturday, February 11.
The clubs would waste no time ramping up that offense either as they combined for 10 goals in the opening period, a frame that would see the Warriors come out with a 6-4 lead. The second would feature nearly as much scoring but the breakdown would be far different as Hendrix drove home seven of nine goals to push to a commanding 13-6 lead at the half.
Heading to the third it would take just a minute and a half for them to exchange goals, keeping it at a seven goal margin. The Panthers would pull out the quarter, however, as they notched two of the next three goals to make it 15-9 heading to the fourth.
Freshman attackman Luke Young (Acworth, Ga.) cut it to five with an unassisted goal at the 12:33 mark of that period but any hopes of a comeback would be dashed over the next seven-plus minutes as Spencer Dorfneilsen, Patrick Richard, William Parsons and Maximus LeMendola each delivered goals to blow it wide open at 19-10.
From there they would go on to close out the 20-13 victory despite three straight tallies by sophomore attackman Ryan Comeau (Canton, Ga.), senior midfielder Ben Bryan (Carrollton, Ga.) and sophomore attackman Andrew Brown (Metairie, La.) in just over a two-minute span.
Dorfneilsen was an offensive force for the Warriors as he found the back of the net a whopping seven times and added an assist for good measure and LaMendola had six goals with four assists for 10 points. They were joined by Richard with three scores and two assists and Klaus Rowan had two goals and a pair of assists to round out the offense. Michael DeCaro went 17-of-36 on faceoffs and added six groundballs and Ian Domeika played all 60 minutes in goal, allowing 13 goals and making 20 saves.
Young and Comeau would anchor the offense for the Panthers as they both finished with three goals and an assist while senior midfielder Klein Woods (Macon, Ga.) and junior attackman Michael Poteete (Evans, Ga.) each had two goals and an assist.
Bryan had a goal and pair of assists and senior faceoff specialist Jacob Jeffords (Marietta, Ga.) went 20-of-38 at the center "X" and collected a game-high 10 groundballs. Senior goalie Isaac Bohrer (Fayetteville, Ga.) played the first 45 minutes and made 14 saves against 15 goals to suffer the loss and fall to 0-2 on the year.
UP NEXT
The Panthers remain on the road and return to the Peach State when they travel to Berry on Wednesday, February 15. Opening faceoff is set for under the lights at 6 p.m. in Rome, Georgia.
