Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Mar. 27, 2022) – The Whittier College men's lacrosse team faced its toughest stretch of the season this past weekend when they hit the road to play No. 2 Salisbury University and No. 4 Christopher Newport University in Maryland and Virginia.

Saturday: No. 2 Salisbury 25, Whittier 5

The Poets took a big step up in competition in taking on Salisbury on Saturday afternoon, as the Seagulls finished second in the 2021 polls as well, being one of the top programs in Division III. The Poets did manage to strike first with junior midfielder Alex Coco (Portland, Ore. / Tualatin) getting the Poets on the board with a first-possession goal. Coco's strike came just after the Seagulls had killed off a one-minute penalty on the Poets' opening possession. Salisbury would retaliate early and often, but Whittier did a nice job of spreading the ball around with five differen players accruing goals, one of which came on the powerplay off the stick of junior attackman Ike Eastburn (Colorado Springs, Colo. / Goucher College), who took a pass from freshman midfielder Noah Wehrman (Aurora, Colo. / Grandview) and buried the ball in the back of the net to close the half. Whittier did manage to outdo Salisbury by winning 19 of 33 faceoff attempts, however, with junior Joshua Peavey (Corte Madera, Calif. / Marin Catholic) leading with 11 wins in 16 attempts. Senior Sergei Jacobs (Edmonds, Wash. / Seattle Preparatory) was also a bright spot for the Poets, coming up with eight ground balls.

Sunday: No. 4 Christopher Newport 21, Whittier 6

Whittier fared slightly better on Sunday against the fourth-ranked Captains and once again were able to draw first blood. This time, junior Wiley Burkett (Colorado Springs, Colo. / Limestone University) successfully opened scoring for the Purple & Gold on a pass from sophomore Payton Lester (Evergreen, Colo. / St. Joseph's University), though the Poets would find it tough once again to put any kind of run on their opponent, though they did win the faceoff battle for the second game in a row, this time by an even more competitive count of 16-14. Peavey once again led with 10 wins in 19 attempts, and picked up a pair of ground balls to go with it. Burkett would go on to lead the Poets with two goals, while freshman Brayden Legette (Aurora, Colo. / Eaglecrest) had one goal to go with two assists. Senior Jacobs, meanwhile, put together his second-consecutive eight ground ball game, and freshman goalie Kyle desGarrenes (Golden, Colo. / Golden) played well in second-half relief of classmate Drew Low (Puyallup, Wash. / Graham-Kapowsin), finishing with eight saves.

Head Coach Curt Foxx and the Poets will head back to Memorial Stadium for Senior Night on Thursday, Mar. 31 when they host Depauw University at 7 p.m.

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