Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College men's lacrosse team won their fourth game in a row Sunday morning as they rolled past Southwestern University (TX) 20-9 improving to 7-2.
Whittier wraps up their trip to Dallas, TX 2-0 beating both Dallas and Southwestern and have now outscored their opponents 81-26 over their past four games.
The Purple & Gold jumped out in front 4-0 following the first 15:00 period. Matt Symes (Coquitlam, BC, Canada) got the scoring started and ended the period with goals and freshmen Ian Leek (Valley Center, Calif.) and Ashton Pieris (Burlen, WA) would add the other two.
Jonathan Kassity (San Clemente, Calif.) stretched Whittier's lead to five on the Poets first possession in the second quarter. Dakota Skinner would end the run with an unassisted goal at the 8:29 mark but over the next five minutes, Leek would take over adding another two that stretched the lead to six.
The Pirates would answer with back to back strikes soon after to pull within four, but defender Kevin O'Donnell (Carlsbad, Calif.) would put the momentum back with the Poets going coast to coast following a caused turnover to add his second of the season right before the half.
Maxwell Jones (Fircrest, WA), Leek, Symes, and Nick Angileri (San Jose, Calif.) would give the Poets cushion out of the half with six unanswered that moved the score to 14-3 and they didn't look back adding another two at the end of the third period putting the game out of reach.
Southwestern mounted a comeback in the fourth with four goals, which included the first two in the first six minutes but it would be a little too late as Symes, Nick Hernandez (La Mesa, Calif.), Chris Burley (San Diego, Calif.), and Ryan Lynch (Hopewell, NJ) would seal the victory with goals in the final 6:58.
Leek finished the game with five goals and an assist. Symes had four and Jones had three with two assists and three groundballs. Scott Pescheret (Eagan, MN) was 25-28 on face-offs and picked up 18 groundballs, while Aaron Self (San Clemente, Calif.) had two assists and four groundballs.
In goal, Dakota Turgeon (Bellingham, WA) picked up the victory playing 56:00 finishing with seven saves.
Whittier has a big road trip this weekend as they travel to Illinois to take on Carthage (Friday, April 8 @ 5:00pm) and Aurora (Sunday, April 10 @ 11:00am).
