Wheeling, W. Va. - After a dominating victory over Malone on Wednesday, the Wheeling Men's Lacrosse team (6-5, 5-3) will hit the road today for tonight's matchup against Walsh University for one of their last regular season games. The game Wednesday had a slow start, but Wheeling was able to gain control in the second half to take a 13-6 victory over Malone on senior day. With that, the Cardinals officially clinched their Great-Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Tournament spot, as long as the Thomas More vs. Point Park game does not end in a tie today.
The Cardinals also broke some personal records, starting with Jack Rowe and Zander Thomas. Rowe got himself a new season high of single game goals with five, while Thomas got a new season high of single game assists for himself with four. Nate Castner got himself a new season high of single game ground balls with five. Hajiyianni Marin had his best game in the faceoff going 5-7. Lastly, Hayden Evans gained his first collegiate goal by getting the ground ball off the faceoff and running it down on his own to get the goal.
After Wednesday's performance, Rowe still leads the team in goals and points with 29 goals and 40 points. He has 13 more goals than the following person and 17 more points. Andrew Turner is also helping on the attacking end by leading assists with 12. The Defensive end is being led by Landen Martin with 42 ground balls and Riley Lincoln with 22 caused turnovers. Mason Malec leads in faceoff wins with 57, while Marin has a faceoff win percentage of .531 . Martin also leads the goalies with 118 saves and a save percentage of .578.
The Matchup
Wheeling and Walsh will be meeting for the 13th time. The Cardinals gained their first win in five years over the Cavaliers last year when they played them at home. It was a very close game last year, with them going into half time tied at four. Wheeling was able to gain the lead in the third quarter and keep it for the remainder of the game to win 10-8.
Walsh currently sits one spot above Wheeling, in fourth, with a 6-2 conference record. Their last game was on Saturday, April 11th against Thomas More where they defeated the Saints 20-8, and had two players score double hat tricks. Sophomore midfielder Parker Stanway and senior midfielder Ty Pilkington both scored six goals during the game, while junior attacker Toby Olynyk scoring five and assisting six. Sophomore long-stick midfielder Luca Grilli led the defense with nine ground balls, nine Cavaliers caused turnovers, with six having multiple. Freshman faceoff man Dylan Castiglia was their lead faceoff man going 11-25. Lastly, junior goalkeeper Austin England played all 60 minutes in net and made 13 saves on 21 shots.
The Details
The Cardinals will be traveling to North Canton, OH to take on Walsh University with the first faceoff at 7 PM on Larry Staudt Field. The live stream can be viewed through FloSports
HERE, and live stats can be accessed
HERE.
