Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Lacrosse team got off to a slow start Friday evening but bounced back to earn a big 18-9 victory over Elmhurst College at Memorial Stadium.
Whittier wraps up their seven game home stand as they improve to 5-2.
Aaron Self (San Clemente, Calif.) and Jonathan Kassity (San Clemente, Calif.) added the first two goals of the game to put WC in front 2-0. But Elmhurst would answer with their own run of four unanswered that closed out the first quarter giving them a 4-2 lead.
Mac Harden would add his third goal of the game to start off the second moving the score to 5-2 in favor of the Blue Jay's but that lead would be short-lived as the Purple & Gold would add six in a row to close out the half giving them back the lead 8-5.
During this spurt, freshman Ian Leek (Valley Center, Calif.) went off scoring four of the six goals, while Kassity and Maxwell Jones (Fircrest, WA) would add the other two.
The run continued for Whittier out of the half as they would add another five. Leek would add the first and last goals of the 5-0 run and Matt Symes (Coquitlam, BC, Canada) would find the back of the goal three straight times that gave the Poets cushion 13-5.
Kalani Flowers would end the run with an unassisted goal at the 4:24 mark but Harry Kemp (Hopewell, NJ) and Leek would add another two for the Poets that put the game out of reach.
Elmhurst made one final push with three goals coming in the final 15:00 but WC managed to add three themselves from Jones, Sigi Ocker (San Francisco, Calif.) and Matt Hernandez (Los Angeles, Calif.) that put the finishing touches on a lopsided contest.
Leek finished with a career high seven goals and four assists. Symes finished with three and an assist and Kassity and Jones would each register two, while combining for five assists.
Alex Cramer (Rocky Hill, CT) picked up his fifth win of the season playing the whole first half picking up five saves against 11 shots.
Whittier outshot Elmhurst 44-28 and was 15-30 on faceoffs. The Poets picked up 33 groundballs and was a perfect 14-14 on clear attempts.
Whittier hits the road for two games as they travel to Dallas, TX where they will take on Dallas (April 1 @ 3:00pm) and Southwestern (TX) (April 3 @ 10:00am).
