MARIETTA, Ga. – Looking to rebound from its first loss of the season earlier this week, the Lander men's lacrosse team engaged in a close battle with Palm Beach Atlantic on the campus of Marietta High School Sunday afternoon, but came up short, 13-10.
Luke Aspnes collected his second hat-trick of the season for the Bearcats (4-2).
Matt Duarte scored twice, and
Cameron Festi,
Levi Roest,
Josh Rosa,
Carson Skinner and
Jeremy Wudrick each had one goal.
LU fell behind 3-1 during the first five-plus minutes of the game but clawed back into it with a 3-0 run to end the first quarter with a 4-3 lead.
Festi, Roest and Aspnes had the goals during the run. The run extended into the second quarter by two more scores from Aspnes and Rosa as the Bearcats doubled-up the Sailfish and led 6-3; Aspnes captured his hat-trick 21 seconds into the second.
PBA (4-2) responded with three goals of its own to tie it at 6 with 4:45 to go in the half.
Lander outscored the Sailfish 3-2 from there and grabbed a 9-8 halftime lead – Duarte beat the halftime horn by three seconds to regain the lead for the Blue and Gold.
The second half was more of the bear-down variety and PBA tallied five goals to Lander's one.
Jimmy Moxley relieved
Max Porterfield over the final 30 minutes and continued to impress with six saves.
This matchup was quite even aside from just the close score:
Shots read 35-34 Lander; shots on goal were in favor of the Bearcats, 22-20; and each team won 13 face-offs.
Lander will play another neutral-site game this Friday, March 6 against current-No. 18 Embry-Riddle at Memorial Stadium in Savannah, Ga. Game-time is set for 3 p.m.
