By Joshua J. Darling, Sports Information Director
LAGRANGE, Ga. – Defending USA South Champion Southern Virginia (2-5, 1-0 USA South) used an eight goal second half and LaGrange (4-5, 0-1 USA South) could not overcome the offensive charge as they fell 14-10 in the league opener for both clubs in an NCAA Division III men's lacrosse game on Saturday, March 18.
The Knights would jump out ahead early as Clay Haacke found the back of the net 41 seconds in and Jon Yandow would make it 2-0 when he took it himself at the 10:26 mark. LC would then get off the deck over the next nearly four minutes as sophomore midfielder Holden Samuels (Woodstock, Ga.) found senior midfielder Jack Bryan (Carrollton, Ga.) 34 seconds later.
Sophomore attackman Ryan Comeau (Canton, Ga.) and junior attackman Michael Poteete (Evans, Ga.) found the back of the net at 7:34 and 6:38, respectively to take a 3-2 lead. It would be short lived, however, as SVU came right back with three straight goals, those by Yandow, Scott DuPaix and Michael Brown, to retake the lead at 5-3 by the 8:26 mark of the second period.
It would continue to be a back-and-forth affair as senior midfielder Klein Woods (Macon, Ga.) cut it to one with a score with three and a half minutes left in the half, only to see Gabe King answer 29 seconds later. Comeau would connect with sophomore attackman Andrew Brown (Metairie, La.) at 1:46 to cut it to 6-5 by the break and then take a pass from freshman attackman Luke Young (Acworth, Ga.) just over five minutes into the third to deadlock at 6-6.
From there, however, Southern Virginia would flex their muscle and score seven of the next eight goals in just over 15 minutes to retake the lead at 13-7 with 7:45 to play. Clay Haacke would deliver two of those scores and King had a goal and an assist to fuel that outburst.
Even down six with less than eight minutes to play, LaGrange mounted a rally as they scored three of the final four with Comeau connecting on one and assisting on another. That charge would get them to within the eventual final margin of four as they simply ran out of time in the 14-10 decision.
Clay Haacke led the way for SVU with four goals on 14 shots while Yandow finished with three scores. King delivered a pair of goals himself and helped setup two others and Jaydon Arnold controlled the center "X", going 20-of-26 with 10 groundballs. Calben Brodie played the first half in net, making three saves and allowing five goals to pick up the win and move to 2-5.
Comeau anchored the offensive attack for the Panthers as he drilled three to the back of the net and dished out a pair of assists to go with three groundballs while Young had a goal, a pair of assists and two groundballs. Poteete and Brown each found the back of the net twice and Jack Bryan and Woods had a goal apiece. Senior goalkeeper Isaac Bohrer (Fayetteville, Ga.) went the distance, making 22 saves against 14 goals allowed to suffer the loss and fall to 3-5.
UP NEXT
The Panthers return to action on Saturday, March 25 when they head to Brevard for USA South match up. Faceoff is set for 3 p.m. in Brevard, North Carolina.
