Freshman middie Ezra Anderson drives against West Virginia in Sunday's game at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields. (Photos by Ted Allen)
Flames climb past Mountaineers in competitive ALC North Division showdown
3/4/2024 9:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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Playing its fourth game in eight days, Liberty weathered West Virginia's upset bid on the strength of four goals by Will Geary, three by Braden Landry, and a goal and three assists by Keaton Mohs.
Liberty University's men's lacrosse team was severely tested by Atlantic Lacrosse Conference North Division rival West Virginia University before netting the final goal and running out the clock in a 13-10 triumph, Sunday afternoon at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
"When you play regional in-conference opponents, you've got to expect that you're going to get the best punch from a team like West Virginia," Flames Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said after Liberty improved to 4-2 and dropped the Mountaineers to 4-3. "Give them a lot of credit. We couldn't shake them today. Every time we were trying to separate a little bit, they fought back. We would take momentum and then we'd give it right back and they were sitting there waiting to capitalize on our mistakes. We never really found our groove today."
Liberty junior middie Will Geary (4 goals, 1 assist) reverses field against the Mountaineers.
"We know West Virginia doesn't like us, and we don't like them, so they gave us their all because they only get to play us one game per year," added Liberty junior middie Will Geary. "The whole game was chippy. That fuels us, 100 percent."
Geary scored four goals and distributed one assist while senior Keaton Mohs netted one goal and three assists to spark the Flames' midfield.
"It was a lot tighter than we would have liked, but we were just happy to get the win," Geary said. "They came out firing and all we could do was fire back and that's what we did. The boys, we're in our fourth game in eight days, we were kind of low on energy, so I was the guy to kind of light that flame. I had a few energy plays that got our bench rolling."
Senior Braden Landry added a hat trick with one assist and sophomore Luke Branham added two goals and two assists to pace the attack.
After Mohs forced a WVU turnover by checking a Mountaineers middie out of bounds near the Liberty bench, freshman middie Hunter Rockhill assisted Landry for a finish from the right side that extended the Flames' advantage to 8-5 just 10 seconds before halftime.
"We ended the first quarter really well with a late goal and then going into the half," McQuillan said. "That's how we want to finish quarters and halves, take momentum and go into that 10-minute break with some of that energy, but we never capitalized on that momentum. We never ran away with it."
Moments after a West Virginia score early in the fourth quarter, Geary set up Landry for his second goal, but Jackson Smith answered for the Mountaineers by firing a shot from beyond midfield that skipped into an empty net, trimming the deficit to 12-8 with 9:50 remaining in regulation.
Liberty worked the shot clock down before Branham set up Landry's third goal with a pass from the left endline to the top right of the box for a spinning shot from the perimeter with 1:06 to play. That held up as the final score after sophomore middie Shane Supek won the ensuing faceoff and ran out most of the rest of the clock.
The Flames celebrate the third and final goal by Braden Landry late in the fourth quarter.
"Especially late, that might have been a different game if we started losing some of those faces," McQuillan said. "Shane, both (Saturday) and today, did a good job of winning those."
Supek won 14 of his 23 faceoffs and picked up nine ground balls and senior goalie Eric Warnstrom made 10 saves (50 percent).
"Shane's been huge at the X," Geary said, noting that the offense is getting used to new systems and playing together. "With new guys on the field, it's taken a little more time of adjusting, but we're almost there. We are definitely starting to click."
"Ball movement and spacing still continues to be a little bit of an issue for us," McQuillan added. "We do not have a problem of having the right athletes. It's a very different group from last year, a lot of new guys, a lot of transfers, and it's taken a lot of time to put everything together."
The Flames will return to action on Friday at 7 p.m. against Pittsburgh and Sunday at noon against North Carolina State back at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields before traveling to Florida over Spring Break when they will challenge No. 5 BYU on March 14 and the No. 12-ranked host Gators on March 15 in Jacksonville, Fla.
By Ted Allen/Staff WriterJunior long-stick middie Benjamin Chun keeps his eyes on a loose ball West Virginia's Ben Chadwick shields a Flame from the ball.
