Courtesy of Newberry College Athletics

Courtesy of Newberry College Athletics

NEWBERRY — The Newberry College men’s lacrosse team scored an early goal on Wednesday evening, but couldn’t keep pace with the visiting Lenoir-Rhyne Bears as they dropped the contest 18-6.

James Osorio (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) got Newberry (5-3, 1-2 South Atlantic Conference) off to a fast start, scoring the game’s first goal just 30 seconds into the matchup off an assist from Scott Reed (Ontario, Canada). Osorio’s goal was on the man-up advantage after an early unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Lenoir-Rhyne (7-1, 2-0 SAC).

The Bears then responded with seven straight goals to take a 7-1 lead after the first quarter.

Briley Maxwell (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) netted the first goal of the second quarter after a five-plus minute scoring drought for both teams, scoring at the 9:39 mark. Five more unanswered Bears goals made it 12-2 after one half of play.

The Wolves were able to get one back about four minutes into the second half as Baker Westmoreland (Charlotte, N.C.) scored to make it 12-3. Lenoir-Rhyne then went on a 5-0 run to bring its advantage to 17-3 heading into the fourth. In that quarter, Newberry outscored the Bears 3-1 thanks to goals from Miles Jones (Jupiter, Fla.), Thomas Gregory (Moore) – his first career collegiate goal – and Osorio for an 18-6 final tally.

In all, Newberry collected more ground balls (26-23) and edged Lenoir-Rhyne 14-13 on faceoffs.