NEWBERRY — On a day honoring seniors, the Newberry College men’s lacrosse team got their second-straight win in conference play as they took down Mars Hill on April 16, at Setzler Field. Newberry improved to 9-6 (5-4 SAC) with the win and Mars Hill (MHU) fell to 4-10 (0-9 SAC).
Newberry opened the contest with an all-senior starting lineup therefore, it is only fitting that senior Brice Kirsch (Boiling Springs) got the Wolves on the board first, less than a minute into the first quarter. Sophomore Baker Westmoreland (Charlotte, N.C.) found the back of the net less than a minute later to put Newberry up, 2-0. Mars Hill responded with a score but Westmoreland had other plans as he netted his second goal of the day to go up 3-1 midway through the first. Sophomore duo Miles Jones (Jupiter, Fla.) and Mac Ryan (Lake Villa, Ill) both closed the first quarter with goals to head into the second with the momentum and a 5-2 lead.
MHU cut the deficit down to two to begin the second quarter but sophomore Zach Thompson (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) fired back with a goal to keep Newberry out in front by three, 6-3. Senior captain Zachary Sunderland (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) tacked on another goal for the Wolves as the scoring surge continued. MHU added two more goals which were quickly answered by Thompson and Westmoreland’s second goals of the day to give Newberry a 9-5 advantage headed into the halftime break.
Juniors Curtis Bukta and Scott Reed started the second half on a mission as they both netted goals to extend Newberry’s lead to 11-5. The Wolves continued to pile on the goals in the third as they outscored MHU 6-4 in the quarter to enter the final period with a 15-9 lead.
Sophomore Owen Harrison (Apex, N.C.) and freshman Sawyer Morais (Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada) tacked on two more scores to begin the fourth followed by senior Connor Bates (Boiling Springs) scoring a goal off of a won faceoff to give Newberry their biggest lead of the day at 18-9 just a minute into the fourth quarter. MHU went on to score six-straight goals but Newberry’s lead was too much as the Wolves took down the Lions 18-15 on Senior Day.
Bukta led the Wolves in points today with a six-point performance on two goals and game-high four assists. Eleven different Wolves scored goals in the win and they won the ground ball battle, 31-26.