Liberty University Club Sports
Virginia Tech
Flames start out on fire, cool off in second and fourth quarters of loss to Hokies
2/19/2023 12:34:57 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Liberty University’s men’s lacrosse team, which lost its final fall scrimmage at Virginia Tech, 17-7, showed it has made tremendous strides since then, but still has a ways to go after dropping Saturday’s regular-season showdown with the Hokies at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields, 13-9.
“It was definitely a step in the right direction,” Flames Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. “That was a competitive game. A lot of respect for Virginia Tech. They do a lot of things really, really well and one of them is making teams pay for their mistakes … (and) a lot of the damage that we sustained today was self-inflicted.”
After winning its first four games over Alabama, Auburn, East Carolina, and Miami (Ohio) by a combined score of 72-12, Virginia Tech (5-0) had to rally from a 5-1 deficit early in the second quarter to remain undefeated and deal the Flames (2-1) their first setback after lopsided wins over Temple (19-7 last Friday) and North Carolina State (17-7 last Sunday).
“That’s a really good team,” McQuillan said. “They’re one of the best teams in the country, but I think we’re one of the best teams in the country. The unique thing with this is we don’t usually play VT this early in the season, so we’re going to use it as fuel, we’re going to use it as motivation, and we’re going to fix the mistakes that we were able to recognize today and hopefully moving forward fix a lot of stuff.”
After Virginia Tech senior attack Grayson Barker started the scoring by finishing a fast-break feed from junior long-stick middie Kyle Sudler, the Flames sparked their offense from the defensive end, with steals by senior midfielder Remy Newton and freshman middie Shane Supek. Working with a two-man advantage, sophomore middie Will Geary (3 goals, 2 assists) evened the score at 1-1 with a shot from the top of the box before graduate attack Cooper Branham (1G, 3A, 4 ground balls) scored on a running bounce shot down the left side of the box.
Flames junior goalie Eric Warnstrom made one of his 13 saves of a long perimeter shot by defensive middie Matthew Pounder before graduate middie Cameron Carter received a pass from Branham and put away a running bounce shot from the top of the box. Geary then fed an entry pass to junior attack Braden Landry cutting in front of the cage for a catch-and-release point-blank finish and a 4-1 Liberty lead with 1:30 left in the first quarter before Carter finished an assist from Geary to extend the edge to 5-1 at the 12:05 mark of the second quarter.
“That first quarter was some of the best lacrosse I’ve seen us play all year,” McQuillan said. “We know lacrosse is a game of swings and momentum and we weren’t able to maintain that. If we can play four quarters of that type of lacrosse, we’re not going to have any issues, but the problem that all teams have is just consistency.”
Senior middie Tyler Harper started Virginia Tech’s comeback with a running shot down left side of box before the Hokies sandwiched goals on a man advantage and shorthanded around a turnaround bounce shot from the top of the box by junior attack Aidan Smith to tie the game at 5, 7:20 before halftime.
“They had two goals when we were a man-up, a lot of transition goals, and we made a lot of bad mistakes in our transition game, in the riding and the clearing, which gave them more opportunities,” McQuillan said. “A loss is a loss, but a lot of that damage we did to ourselves. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but it’s something that we can fix, hopefully, for the future, and we’re going to be optimistic.”
Kyle Dickson’s crossing pass to Grayson Barker for a shovel shot in the left crease put the Hokies on top going into halftime before freshman attack Luke Branham’s goal on a two-man advantage retied it at 6-6 with 14:34 left in the third period.
However, Virginia Tech went on a 3-0 run capped by senior attack Jared Cole’s fast-break finish on a counterattack, pocketing a point-blank shot past Warnstrom into the top right corner for a 9-6 lead.
Geary netted back-to-back goals late in the third quarter and early in the fourth off assists from Cooper Branham and junior middie Keaton Mohs (3 assists), respectively, to pull the Flames back within 9-8. After senior attack Dan Weber received Cole’s pass from behind the cage for a quick-release finish to put the Hokies up 10-8, Luke Branham’s turnaround finish into the upper netting off a pass from Mohs cut the deficit to 10-9 with 11:35 to go.
But Liberty was held scoreless for the remainder of the contest and Virginia tech added three insurance scores, the first by Weber on a sharp-angled shot from right side after a Liberty turnover on transition with 5:11 to play.
One area that the Hokies exploited was in the faceoff circle, winning 16-of-24 for the game, with Supek experiencing the most success winning 4-of-8.
“If there was an Achilles’ Heel today, it was the fact that Virginia Tech was able to score and just go right back to offense,” McQuillan said. “(Losing 66) percent of those faceoffs, that’s a tough percentage to overcome in a game, but I thought everywhere else, we stood toe to toe.”
He said the setback, while discouraging, will push the Flames to strive to maintain their focus and intensity four four quarters as they battle all five teams in the top five in the preseason rankings in preparation for the postseason.
“That just speaks to the parity of the MCLA and the strength of the ALC and how good Virginia Tech is,” McQuillan said. “They’re going to have a lot of success, but we expect to see them again. That (ALC Tournament) would be stop No. 1 and if we’ve got to play them again at nationals, we’ll be prepared for that as well. Everything we want to accomplish is ahead of us.”
Liberty will return to action when it hosts Colorado on Saturday at 10 a.m. before entertaining Colorado State on Sunday at noon back at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
