VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan University men's lacrosse team opened the 2023 slate with a come from behind 14-12 win over Neumann University backed by seven goals from first-year
Liam Murphy. The win for the Marlins (1-0), was the first win on opening day since 2020.
The Knights (0-2) got off to a hot start scoring the first four goals of the game in the first five minutes of play. VWU interrupted NU's run with a pair of goals, one each from
Liam Murphy and
Jackson Dinger, to put the score at 4-2 with a little over seven minutes to play in the opening quarter. Neither team scored again until the final 96 seconds of the first quarter as Neumann added a goal to take a 5-2 lead into the second quarter.
The Marlins opened the second quarter with a man up goal scored by
Daniel Auxier off the assist from Dinger. NU added a goal about five minutes later taking a 6-3 lead, but VWU rallied and scored two goals, one each from
Mark Sprague and Murphy, before the end of the second quarter as the Marlins trailed by one, 6-5, at the horn.
VWU came out of halftime on fire going on a five goal run to take a 10-6 lead. Murphy and
Sam Edwards both scored twice while
Myzaiah Garris collected his first collegiate career goal during the rally. The Knights started a run of their own scoring three consecutive goals to pull within one, 10-9, with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter. Virginia Wesleyan's
Mark Sprague added one last goal before the end of the third to give VWU a two-goal cushion, 11-9.
Murphy helped give the Marlins a little more breathing room to start the fourth quarter scoring a pair of goals, one assisted by
Jackson Rockhill and the other unassisted, putting the score at 13-9. Neumann closed the gap again score a trio of goals over a six minute span to trail by one, 13-12. The Marlins answered twelve seconds, after the 12th Knight goal (3:19), with a goal of their own, the seventh of the game from Murphy with 3:07 on the clock to take a two-goal lead that ultimately would be the final score of 14-12.
Junior keeper
Allen Shaw (W: 1-0) played all 60 minutes between the pipes garnering his first win of the season giving up twelve goals while making 19 saves. Shaw and
Harlan Menger led the Marlins with five ground balls each, while
Caleb Tascione,
Floyd Wells, and
Seth Bearb all tallied three caused turnovers.
The Marlins (1-0) will return to the field in a weeks time when they host the Blazers of Hood College on Friday, February 24, at 5 PM.
