MARS HILL, N.C. (March 29, 2009) – Taking on their first
nationally ranked opponent of the season, the Rollins men's
lacrosse team suffered a 14-7 defeat as they took on Deep South
Conference and tenth-ranked opponent Mars Hill College Sunday
afternoon. With the shortfall, the Tars drop to 2-6, 0-3 in
conference play, while the Lions climb one rung to 8-2 while
staying perfect in DSC action as they advance to 4-0 on the
season.
Freshman attackman Cooper
Gilman netted three goals on the day, including a man-up goal
in with 13 seconds remaining in the game. Gilman was joined by
sophomore sharpshooter BJ
Neller, who fired two goals between the pipes and gave the Tars
an assist, along with Dan
Huettenmoser who gave the Tars one goal and two assists, to
provide the offense with three points apiece. Charles
Cook tallied the final goal for Rollins, as Matthew
Lunnen added an assist on a Gilman goal in fourth quarter
action to close out the scoring for the Tars.
Sophomore goalkeeper Zach
Cole saw a full 60 minutes in cage as he made 11 saves, grabbed
three ground balls and caused a turnover to help out the Tars on
defense as he saw a total of 31 shots and 25 shots on goal.
David Hodgins led Mars Hill by scoring a season high five goals
and three assists. Hodgins was joined by Brent Hann, Danny Farmer,
and Eric Benesch who tallied two goals apiece. Between the pipes,
Nick Sigona played 52:56 minutes in goal and joined Cole as he made
11 saves.
Hodgins gave the Lions a 1-0 lead with 12:33 left in the first
quarter and Mars Hill never looked back as they went on to hold the
Tars silent in the first 15 minutes of action and out-scored their
conference opponent 3-0. With another quick goal from Mars Hill to
kick off the second quarter, Rollins was down 4-0 with 13:24 to go
before the half.
Thankfully, Neller jump-started the Tars at the 7:49 mark with
an unassisted goal to put Rollins on the board, and with a quick
goal from Huettenmoser off of a Neller assist three minutes later
the Tars cut their deficit in half. The Lions out-scored the Tars
2-1 before the close of the first half, leading 6-3 at the
break.
Mars Hill continued their scoring success into the second half
as they shot Rollins 19-15, and found success on eight of their
shots on goal while the Tars only were able to score four more
goals as the clock counted down.
Rollins matched Mars Hill in shots as both teams ripped a total
of 31 shots throughout the afternoon. The big comparison was the
shots-on-goal count as Mars Hill fired 25 on cage while Rollins was
only able to find 18. The Tars were also silenced on faceoffs as
they were 8-for-21 in the full 60 minutes.
Despite their SOG and midfield setbacks, the Tars did
comparatively well as they were successful on 95 percent of their
clears and kept pace with the Lions in ground balls as Rollins
collected 37 and MHC grabbed 40.
The Tars will be back in action in a week when they take to the
road once more and travel up to Wingate, N.C. to take on the
Bulldogs of Wingate University on Sunday, April 5. First faceoff
is set for 1:00 p.m. To stay up to date on the latest men's
lacrosse news, statistics, and action, check out the Tars' home on
the web at www.RollinsSports.com.
