Men’s lacrosse opens with sleeper of a win over ALC North rival Owls

Saturday, February 10

Philadelphia, PA

12:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Temple University

Flames senior middie Keaton Mohs helped spark the attack Saturday at Temple. (Photo by Kendall Tidwell)

Men’s lacrosse opens with sleeper of a win over ALC North rival Owls

2/11/2024 12:56:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

Liberty dominated Temple in every statistical category, especially faceoffs and goals, outscoring the Owls 23-2 for the contest.

Ranked No. 2 in the MCLA Preseason Coaches Poll, Liberty University's men's lacrosse team, lived up to its billing in Saturday's regular-season opener at Atlantic Lacrosse Conference (ALC) North Division rival Temple University, a 23-2 demolition in downtown Philadelphia.

"We didn't anticipate having a victory of such a large margin, but the guys played really well and definitely deserved it," Flames Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "It was a great way to start the year. We do not have a soft schedule, so this is something we should not get used to."

Braden-Landry-Liberty-lacrosse — Senior attack Braden Landry netted five goals at Temple. (Photos by Andrew Musser)

Liberty's attackmen provided the lion's share of the scoring against the Owls (0-1), led by sophomore Luke Campbell, a transfer from York (Pa.) College, netted four goals and distributed three assists in his first game with the Flames (1-0) and senior Braden Landry tallied five goals and added an assist.

"Luke Campbell leading the team in points today confirms our suspicions that he was going to be able to come in and have an impact right away," McQuillan said.

Sophomore attack Luke Branham converted a hat trick with three goals and freshmen Easton Cahill (1G, 2A) and Thomas Dyson (2G) also contributed to the scoring.

Flames sophomore midfielder Shane Supek played a pivotal role, winning 17 out of 22 faceoffs.

"He helped us to gain possession after a goal and the guys did a good job of maintaining possession throughout the game," McQuillan said. "In addition to his faceoff wins, Supek picked up 10 ground balls and scored a goal, so he was probably our most productive player of the game. Shane is not only a faceoff specialist, but a very dangerous offensive player as well. That was a good start for him and hopefully a confidence boost not only for him, but for our whole team."

He said the offense took a little while to find its rhythm but used its speed and high-precision shooting to exploit Temple's weaknesses on defense repeatedly throughout the contest.

"We definitely used our midfielders to initiate the offense," McQuillan said. "Our attack, both in fast breaks and in our settled offense, did a great job of being patient as we settled into the game and were able to start getting higher-percentage shots."

Leading the way among the middies was senior Keaton Mohs (2G, 1A) along with graduate Mark Rolewicz (1G, 1A), and junior Ezra Anderson (1G), while freshman and junior defensive middies Ty Broughton and Stephen Westlake, a Philadelphia native, also netted goals in transition.

McQuillan was able to experiment with his lineups and test his depth charts at every position.

"When you are able to have as much control in the game as we were fortunate to have today, it gave us the opportunity to get all of our guys in," he said. "On the defensive side of the ball, we were able to get all three goalies in, and hold them to two goals on five shots."

Senior Eric Warnstrom started before being relieved by sophomore Cam Harriman in in third quarter and freshman Ian Carvajal in the fourth, with each one making one save Warnstrom and Carvajal allowing one goal early and late.

"To limit Temple to five shots on net was a pretty extraordinary performance by our defense, as we had well over 50 shots today," McQuillan said.

Freshman-attack-Easton-Cahill — Freshman attack Easton Cahill controls the ball in front of two Owls defenders.

The Flames will play the first of their nine home games on Saturday at 5 p.m. against Northeastern, which is ranked No. 11 after narrowly missing upsetting eventual champion Concordia (Calif.) in the second round of last year's MCLA National Championships.

"Northeastern is a a sneaky good team, and has a lot of returning players who are highly touted on both sides of the ball, so it will be a very difficult home opener for us," McQuillan said.

The following Saturday, Feb. 24, the Flames will entertain No. 12 South Carolina, which has already upset No. 5 Georgia, before they travel to Blacksburg on Feb. 28 to challenge No. 1-ranked ALC rival Virginia Tech.

"We know Virginia Tech is looming, and that is a meaningful game to our guys, but we have some tough games to focus on before then that I anticipate being ranked in the Top 10 team," McQuillan said.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer