By Joshua J. Darling, Sports Information Director
RALEIGH, N.C. – LaGrange (8-8, 4-4 USA South) men's lacrosse continues to grow and hit a pair of major benchmarks as they held off William Peace (7-7, 3-5 USA South) by a 17-15 score in an NCAA Division III contest on Saturday, April 29.
The victory not only sets the program record for wins in a season with eight, surpassing the seven of last year, but also sends the Panthers to the postseason for the first time in their four-year history. LaGrange has qualified for the 2023 USA South Tournament, and not just made it but will host a first round game as the No. 4 seed.
The Panthers would come out firing as they drilled home the first three goals in the first five minutes with sophomore attackman Andrew Brown (Metairie, La.), senior midfielder Klein Woods (Macon, Ga.) and freshman attackman Luke Young (Acworth, Ga.) did the honors.
From there the Pacers would score four of the next five with Drew Von Werne, Devin Noonan and Brewer Warlick connecting, the latter twice within 20 seconds, to even it up at 4-4 by the 4:39 mark. LaGrange then notched back-to-back scores as sophomore attackman Ryan Comeau (Canton, Ga.) connected with Brown and junior attackman Michael Poteete (Evans, Ga.) found Young for man-up scores.
The clubs would then alternate the next three scores as William Murray cut it to one a little over a minute into the second before Poteete connected with senior midfielder Jack Bryan (Carrollton, Ga) at 12:30. Warlick drove one home off a pass from Riely Murray before Brown, Woods and Comeau scored three of the next four to close the opening half with a 10-7 advantage.
That would do nothing but grow in the third as the Panthers dominated the frame, scoring five of the six goals – including the first four – to extend to a 15-8 margin. Incredibly, Young would have a hand in all five as he scored four of them, including three of the man-up variety, while assisting on another.
As impressive as that stretch was, WPU would top that in the fourth as they rattled off the first four with scores by Noonan, Warlick, William English and Noonan again to pull to within 15-12. Comeau would stem the tide briefly at the 4:59 mark before Noonan and Patrick Calhoun drilled home back-to-back scores to get within two with just over four minutes to play.
Woods snapped that stretch and gave LaGrange some breathing room at the 3:48 mark and the Pacers would manage to find the back of the net just once more, that on a Noonan to English connection with 1:28 remaining. From there senior FOGO Jacob Jeffords (Marietta, Ga.) won the ensuing faceoff and snared the groundball to help LC run out the clock and secure the 17-15 victory.
Noonan would pace William Peace with five goals and an assist to go with three groundballs while Warlick finished with four goals. William Murray and Riely Murray each ended up with a goal and three assists and English had two scores, two groundballs and a pair of caused turnovers. Max Hollingsworth picked up eight groundballs and Daniel Ando went the distance in net, allowing 17 goals and making 24 saves to fall to 7-7.
Luke Young dominated play for the Panthers, erupting for six goals and a pair of assists to go with four groundballs while Comeau and Brown each had three scores, two assists and three groundballs. Woods registered three goals and five groundballs and Jeffords went 19-of-34 at the center "X", picking up a game-high 14 groundballs in the process.
Freshman defenseman Wade Young (Acworth, Ga.) led the defense, collecting seven groundballs and a caused turnover and senior goalkeeper Isaac Bohrer (Fayetteville, Ga.) anchored play between the pipes, making 16 saves against 15 goals to improve to 6-8 on the year.
UP NEXT
LaGrange has earned the No. 4 seed in the 2023 USA South Tournament and will host Methodist in a rematch of perhaps the most exciting game in program history. Earlier this month the two teams tangled at Callaway Stadium with the Panthers pulling out a thrilling 21-20 victory in the final seconds. This time they will once again meet at Callaway and do so on Tuesday, May 2. Faceoff is yet to be determined.
