Colonial beatdown
Men’s lacrosse team wins 19th straight home game with thrashing of GWU
The No. 17 Liberty Flames men’s
lacrosse team took down the George Washington Colonials in dominating fashion, extending its home win streak to 19 games with a 16-2 win Saturday, Feb. 27.
The Flames added a mark on the scoreboard less than three minutes in. Freshman attacker Sam Gregory scored the first goal for the Flames followed shortly by a goal from senior attacker Ryan Miller.
Miller circled completely around the Colonials before sending the ball into the back of the net.
The lead was 4-0 before the Colonials even held the ball in the Flames zone for less than a few seconds. Senior midfielder Charles Fianko dominated the face-offs in the first half.
“You got to do it for the guy next to you,” Fianko said. “Coach always reiterates to me if we do not win possessions we will not win games. Every time I go in it’s just one at a time.”
The first quarter ended with the Flames leading 5-2 and that would be the closest the Colonials came to taking the lead. The Flames offense continued to roll on as fans witnessed a highlight-reel goal in the second quarter. Senior midfielder Chad Moore whipped a shot behind his head that found its way over the Colonials goaltender’s shoulder and into the net.
“This game was needed,” Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. “We had a rough weekend last weekend from a morale standpoint and for expectations we had this season we needed to come out and be dominant. It was not expected but it was needed.”
Heading into halftime, the Flames led 10-2. After a slower-paced third quarter, the Flames added one more goal extending their lead to 11-2. The Flames capped off their performance with a five-goal fourth quarter that sealed the win.
“This game was a step in the right direction,” McQuillan said. “I still think there is a lot of work, we’ll take a look at the film and look at the things we did right and continue to work on the things we didn’t.”
Most of the Flames offensive production came from three players. Senior midfielder Brett Bernardo, sophomore attacker Nick Lombardozzi and Miller combined for 12 of the Flames 16 goals, each of them scoring four. Gregory added two more and Moore and sophomore midfielder Morgan Pitts each scored one goal. Freshmen goaltenders Matt Nichols and Brayden Harriman combined for 14 saves on 16 Colonials shots.
“This is just a testament to our guys,” Fianko said. “We had a really bad opening weekend. We had some high expectations but things just did not go our way. We had to decide what team we wanted to be. A team that lets those losses define us or a team that takes those and lets them encourage us. We took that to heart and showed up today and absolutely killed it.”
Liberty is in action at home again Saturday March 5 at 2 p.m. against West Virginia University.
DAY is a sports reporter.