Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
GEORGETOWN, TX – The Whittier College Men's Lacrosse team ended their trip to Texas Sunday as they put together a comeback late in the fourth quarter only to fall to Southwestern University 11-10.
Whittier (2-3) jumped all over the Pirates in the first four minutes of the game taking a 3-1 advantage with goals coming from Nate Heritage (Bellingham, WA), Cooper Champagne (La Mesa, Calif.), and Jordan Craig (Sherwood, OR). But SU managed to come back with two of their own to tie things up before WC was able to tack on another from Ryan Crawford (San Clemente, Calif.) to stay on top 4-3.
Connor Dee (Collegeville, PA) got in the mix within the first twenty seconds of the second quarter picking up an unassisted goal to move the score to 5-3. But over the final 12:49 the Pirates would rattle off a 4-1 run to go up 7-6 at the break.
Southwestern added to their lead early in the third stretching the lead to 9-6. Billy Shaffer (Tuscon, AZ) and Heritage ended the 6-1 run with back-to-back connections to pull the Poets within one but again SU would respond this time with Matt Amerie converting on a man-up opportunity.
Jared Walsh picked up a big goal in the final frame for the Pirates, and it proved to be the game-winner as Whittier would put together a frantic comeback with tallies from Dee and Shaffer only to see it fall short in a one-goal loss.
Shaffer, Dee, and Heritage each recorded two goals apiece. Kevin O'Donnell (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Max Lepley (San Clemente, Calif.) each registered seven groundballs, while Riley Filler (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Jacob Berggren (Tualatin, OR) would add three caused turnovers.
O'Donnell was the faceoff man for the game going 9-10 from the circle, while Alex Cramer (Rocky Hill, CT) was handed the loss between the posts collecting nine saves against 20 shots.
The Poets held the advantage on shots at 42-29 and forced the Pirates into 32 turnovers. They were 14-of-26 on faceoffs, picked up 39 groundballs and was 20-24 on clear attempts.
Whittier returns to competition in the month of March with four games, three of which are at home. They begin with Eastern Connecticut State on Sunday, March 11 beginning at 1:00pm and then take on Southwestern (TX) (March 15 @ 1:00pm), and Elmhurst (March 22 @ 7:00pm).
