GREENWOOD – The lights certainly weren't too bright for the Lander men's lacrosse team on Friday night as they dispatched visiting Young Harris 21-8 in front of a vociferous Van Taylor Stadium crowd.
The Bearcats improved to 4-0 with the win while the Mountain Lions fell to 1-4.
Luke Aspnes enjoyed the most prolific night of his college career with six goals and an assist. His previous high mark was three goals during his tenure with Frostburg State a season ago.
Michael Mattaliano tallied his second hat-trick of the season and five others scored twice:
Cameron Festi,
Chase Hanson,
Sean Reilly,
Josh Rosa and
Carson Skinner.
Both
Emory Watson and
Jeremy Wudrick added their first goals of the 2026 campaign in the fourth quarter.
The result wasn't a foregone conclusion early in the offing – it was 4-3 Bearcats during the second quarter – but a five-goal run made it 9-3 LU six minutes before halftime. Lander led 10-4 by the end of the second.
Aspnes scored three straight goals about a minute apart to put the hammer down for the Bearcats at the outset of the second half. Skinner and Rosa soon tacked on, making it another 5-0 run for the Blue and Gold and a 15-5 lead.
Mattaliano completed his hat-trick after netting consecutive goals during the latter part of the third. Lander then outscored Young Harris 4-1 over the final 15 minutes.
The Bearcats outshot the Mountain Lions 54-30 with 33 of those coming on goal.
Max Porterfield nabbed his fourth win in net across 45 minutes.
Jimmy Moxley took over for the final stanza and made five noteworthy saves in his second career outing.
Lander will head to Anderson on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to take on the South Atlantic Conference-member Trojans at 7 p.m.
