Phillipi, W. Va. – Sunday was a big day for the Wheeling University Men’s Lacrosse (5-9, 3-3) team as they took down Alderson Broaddus 20-2. Not only did they sweep the yearly West Virginia series, but they set their highest win total since the 2018 season, picking up a their fifth win of the year as they stay alive in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) playoff race. Along with the win, sophomore Ty Taylor wrote his name in the Wheeling record books as he broke the single season points record, picking up four on the day to bring his season total to 62.
The Cardinals got their day started right from the get-go, taking the game’s first four shots before finding the net. Dylan Lavern connected with Mike Andersson for the first goal at the 13:29 mark and the Cardinals were off and running. Andersson would score three of the first four Cardinal’s goals on the day to rack up three points, with two of those goals unassisted. Wheeling led 4-0 at the 7:33 mark of the first quarter, with the fourth goal coming from Christian Cliff off a pass from Ty Taylor, Cliff’s first collegiate goal. Taylor’s next shot would make history as he took a pass from Jacob Knippel and found the net for his first goal of the night. It would add another point to his total and helped Taylor break the single-season points record, scoring his 60th point of the season. Taylor added another goal at the 4:33 mark of the quarter and, by the end of the first quarter it was Wheeling 6, Alderson Broaddus 0.
The second quarter saw the Cardinals continued their offensive success, scoring the first five goals of the quarter. Things started when Knippel picked up his second assist of the day, finding Jack Rowe in front of the end to make it a 7-0 Wheeling lead. Knippel assisted on his third goal of the night as he connected with Taylor and Andersson scored on another unassisted goal to put Wheeling up 9-0 with 8:18 to go in the first half. Goalkeeper Austin Hall did not face a ton of heat through the first half, but finished strong allowing just one goal in the final seconds. He faced seven shots on net and made six total saves through the first 30 minutes of play to set his team up for success. Jake Wodarek would pick up one more assist before the half let out and two more Andersson goals would make it an 11-0 game with 2:11 to go. Alderson Broaddus got on the board with 20 seconds to go and the teams headed into the locker room with Wheeling leading 11-1.
It would be Alderson Broaddus that started the scoring in the second half as at the 13:20 mark, Caleb Frey found the net to make it an 11-2 game. Andersson quickly got that goal back just over two minutes later and Wheeling pushed their lead to 12-2. A pair of midi fenders for on the board next as Zach Lampkin hit Justin Stewart for the 13th Cardinal goal while Ty Taylor notched his third goal of the day to make it a 14-2 Wheeling lead. The final goal of the quarter came from Dakota Strong, who scored his first unassisted goal of the day to make it a 15-2 game. Joshua Wolford subbed in during the third quarter and made a big save to keep Alderson Broaddus off the board in the final minutes of the quarter and after three it was Wheeling 15, Alderson Broaddus 2 as Wheeling tried to close out the win.
Wheeling would pick up their second shutout quarter of the game as this time Wolford would make three saves to secure the win. The Cardinals, meanwhile, would put five goals of their own up in the quarter, beginning with sophomore Brenner Chase scoring an unassisted goal to make it a 16-2 game with 12:29 to play. Just over a minute later, the Cardinals offense was back at it as Rowe found LaVern for his first goal of the night to make it 17-2. Rowe would be next as he picked up his second multi-goal game of the season, firing in his second of the day to make it 18-2. The final two goals of the day would come from Jake Wodarek and Jacob Knippel as the Cardinals went on to win 20-2. It was the second time this season that the Cardinals have eclipsed the 20-goal mark as they look to keep that momentum going to end the season.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior Mike Andersson, who finished with seven goals in the day and four of those being unassisted. He took 12 shots on the day, putting nine of those on net for a 75% shot on net percentage. The Cardinals also got multi-goal efforts from Ty Taylor and Jack Rowe in the game, finishing with four and two goals respectively. Seven different Cardinals accounted for the final seven goals of the day as the offense took a game-high 58 shots, putting 43 of those on net. The Cardinals stayed alive in the GMAC playoff race, needing a win and some help heading into the final week of the regular season.
The Wheeling University Men’s Lacrosse team wraps up regular season play on Saturday, April 29th when they host Mercyhurst at 2 PM on their senior night.
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