Rochester, NY. – On Saturday, the Wheeling University Men's Lacrosse team (0-4, 0-0) hit the road for the final nonconference game before Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) play. The offense broke out for a season-high 10 goals, but it wasn't enough as they fell to the Redhawks 17-10. It was their best offensive output of the season as they gain some momentum before conference play.

After scoring his first collegiate goal in the previous game, freshman Brenner Chase took the ball and ran with it this time around. He notched a team-high three goals on five shots, landing four of those on goal. He led the way with four points and established himself as an offensive threat moving forward. He was one of three Cardinals to finish with multiple goals as both Brody Fawver and Jacob Knippel added two goals on the day with Fawver adding an assist. John Zaramba, Jake Wodarek, and Mitchel Park added goals in the loss. As a team, Wheeling was fairly efficient taking 24 total shots and landing 15 of those on goal while recording 10 goals.

However, it took that offense a while to get going as Roberts Wesleyan controlled the game early on. They put Wheeling in a hole from the opening faceoff, notching four goals in the first 11 minutes of the game, and allowed just four shots by Wheeling during that span. As the quarter came to a close, Wheeling got their offense going when Zaramba won a faceoff and gave his team control. After a pair of groundballs from the Cardinals, Fawver found his shot and scored Wheeling's first goal of the day to make it a 4-1 game. The Redhawks would add two more goals in the quarter before Brenner got Wheeling back on the board with his first goal of the day that brought the score to 6-2 as the first quarter clock expired.

The second quarter was Wheeling's biggest offensive quarter of the season so far as they tacked on five goals in the quarter and nearly took the lead. Roberts Wesleyan scored the first goal, but Wheeling came back two minutes later with freshman Mitchell Park's first collegiate goal. Just a few seconds later, Wheeling would cause a Redhawks turnover and got the ball in Chase's stick. He took advantage making a break for the net and scoring his second goal of the day to make it a 7-4 affair. Roberts Wesleyan made it a four-point game with eight minutes before the half, but Chase was at it again and answered with his third goal of the afternoon to bring the score to 8-5. The Cardinals would then find their offensive groove over the final three minutes of the quarter scoring three straight goals. Knippel would add two goals and John Zaramba scored his first collegiate goal to tie the game at 8-8. Roberts Wesleyan tallied four more goals in the final two minutes and went into halftime with the 12-8 advantage.

The third quarter was not nearly as successful for the Cardinals as Roberts Wesleyan used their momentum to their advantage. They controlled the ball from most of the third quarter and added four more goals to take a 16-8 advantage over the first 13 minutes of the quarter. Wheeling had just one shot attempt during that time and failed to get anything going on the offensive end of things. Then, the Cardinals forced a turnover off the faceoff and gave Jake Wodarek the ball. Wodarek made people miss and took the ball to the net for the first goal of the day. That brought the score to 16-9 by the end of the third and left Wheeling with lots of work ahead of them heading to the fourth.
Wheeling's final goal would come at the 8:20 mark of the fourth quarter. Fawver took a pass from Dakota Strong and went to the net for his second goal of the game. Roberts Wesleyan added their final goal just seconds later and brought the game to its final score of 17-10. Wheeling took just three shots in the final quarter of play but put together their best offensive game of the season. Now, they head into their GMAC opener on Tuesday with some of their offensive pieces identified. Their offensive leader this season Mike Andersson did not score in the game, but it showed that Wheeling has pieces around them that can score when their team needs it.

The Wheeling University Men's Lacrosse team returns to action on Tuesday, March 1st, when they open GMAC play against Seton Hill.