The Wheeling University Lacrosse (3-6,1-1) team went on the road to play a conference game against Davis & Elkins (2-9,1-1). The game final was 20-18, Wheeling going home with the win.
Ty Taylor scored seven goals, while Mike Andersson had five and Brenner Chase chipped in three. After the first quarter, Wheeling kept the lead the remainder of the game.
Three minutes into the game, Davis & Elkins scored the first goal, their first of four in the first quarter. With the Senators leading 3-0, Ty Taylor was able to get an open shot with an assist by Jacob Knippel to score Wheeling's first goal of the day. Taylor also snuck another goal in late in the first quarter. As the Wheeling Cardinals attempted to get the ball through D&E's defense, a second goal was made by Dylan Mathias while two more goals were pushed through by Mike Andersson. Wheeling was able to catch up and move the ball around to end the first quarter with a tied score 5-5. Both teams only allowed two turnovers each in the first quarter.
Wheeling won the second quarter adding seven more goals to the scoreboard. Right off the jump, Ty Taylor earned himself three more goals with assists by Dylan Lavern and Jacob Knippel. Mike Andersson gathered two more goals the second, while Dylan Lavern and Jacob Knippel scored one goal each. Wheeling was able to cause seven turnovers in the quarter, creating chaos defensively. The exciting quarter made the score 12-8 Wheeling at the half.
Mike Andersson wasted no time to start the third quarter with a shot attempt just 12 seconds in, which was followed by three more shots from Wheeling. Mike Andersson scored the first goal of the third quarter, extending the Wheeling lead to 13-8. Brenner Chase and Jake Wodarek followed up with two more goals while Jack Rowe found himself a goal to boost the Cardinals lead. D&E found their way to produce three goals, but it was not enough to catch the Wheeling lead, now 17-11.
The first two goals of the fourth quarter was scored by the Senators, keeping their momentum from the previous quarter. Ty Taylor stole the momentum back, scoring with an assist from Zach Smiley. Brenner Chase found the net again in the fourth quarter, thanks to an assist from Andersson. Davis & Elkins scored two more in the final frame before Wheeling's Ty Taylor came through once again with a goal with an assist by Dakota Strong, making the score 20-15 Wheeling. D&E found some momentum late, scoring the last three goals of the game, but came up short to Wheeling with a final score of 20-18 in favor of the Cardinals. Wheeling was able to fire off 55 shots to D&E's 44 and also caused more turnovers in the win. The victory improved the Cardinals to 3-6 on the young season and added their first tally in the conference win column.
It will be a busy two days for the Cardinals next weekend, with back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday. Wheeling will first travel to Malone for their first ever matchup on Saturday, April 1 in Canton, OH. The contest is slated to begin at 1:00 PM. The Cardinals will then come back home and host Lewis on Sunday, April 2 for a 12:00 PM start time. The home game against the Lewis Flyers can be watched live on MEC TV (mountaineast.tv/wheeling) and live stats of the contest can be found here (https://wucardinals.com/sidearmstats/mlax/summary).
