Flames fend off fiery Sun Devils, 11-10, advance to MCLA semifinals against BYU

Tuesday, May 7

Round Rock, TX

8:45 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Arizona State University

Liberty players run onto the field during Tuesday night's 11-10 MCLA DI quarterfinal win over Arizona State. (Photos by Andrew Musser)

Flames fend off fiery Sun Devils, 11-10, advance to MCLA semifinals against BYU

5/8/2024 12:08:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

Liberty nearly let a 5-0 lead slip away, allowing Arizona State to outscore it in each of the final three quarters before securing the narrow triumph with an empty-net goal and final faceoff win.

Easton-Cahill-controls-ball — Freshman midfielder Easton Cahill contributed two goals against the Sun Devils.

For the third time in as many meetings in the series, a single goal separated the Liberty University and Arizona State University men's lacrosse teams in Tuesday night's MCLA Division I National Championship quarterfinal in Round Rock, Texas.

After opening a 5-0 advantage in the first quarter, the fourth-seeded Flames (14-4) held on for an 11-10 triumph over the No. 12 Sun Devils (10-7) to return to the Final Four for the second consecutive season.

"We wanted to get the lead early, and sit on that and protect it," Liberty Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "We led from start to finish and that was a key to the game for us. Our guys played it out and executed the game plan. Give a ton of credit to them for never folding under the pressure. Every time they got back to within one or two goals, our guys always had a response."

Liberty will face top-seeded, undefeated BYU (17-0, a 15-10 winner over San Diego State) in Thursday's first semifinal at 10:30 a.m. EST before California Santa Barbara (UCSB) plays Utah Valley — a 17-14 winner over Georgia Tech on Tuesday — in the second semifinal at 1:15 p.m. EST streamed live on pay-per-view MCLA TV.

ASU and Liberty split two previous meetings, with the Flames falling, 11-10, in 2015 in Tempe, Ariz., before turning the tables on the Sun Devils at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields, winning 12-11 in 2018.

A minute and a half after an opening faceoff win, Flames freshman midfielder Hunter Rockhill (1 goal, 3 assists) started the scoring by dashing out from behind the right side of the goal and flinging a sidearm shot into the back of the net while falling down for a 1-0 Liberty lead.

Less than three minutes later, after a Sun Devils shot hit the right post, Rockhill set up junior attack Will Geary for a quick turnaround wrist shot that skidded past Arizona State goalie Aidan Shah.

After junior long-stick middie Conor Guiltinan forced a turnover on an ASU clearing attempt, senior middie Keaton Mohs set up sophomore attack Luke Branham with a pass behind the cage and he darted out from beyond the right pipe to sneak a turnaround shot past Shah for a 3-0 advantage at the 9:10 mark.

Will-Geary-ASU-defense — Junior middie Will Geary backs into a Sun Devils defender.

Senior goalie Eric Warnstrom (9 saves) made a quick-reaction save of a fast-break shot from deep in the left side of the box before the Flames capitalized on the other end when Mohs bounced off an ASU check as he bounded from behind the right endline and leaped into the crease to tuck the ball into the top-right corner of the cage for a 4-0 advantage with 5:19 left in the first quarter.

Graduate middie Mark Rolewicz picked up a ground ball on a clear by the Flames that skipped off a Sun Devils defender before he found Branham on the left side where he skipped an underhanded finish through traffic to push the lead to 5-0 at the 1:58 mark.

Freshman Jayson Houck won the first faceoff of the second quarter before Geary and Branham narrowly missed shots, resetting the shot clock, and freshman Easton Cahill struck a post with a sweeping shot from the left side before having his point-blank shot saved by Shah.

Warnstrom made two saves of high percentage shots at the end of the first quarter and a backhander six minutes into the second before ASU took advantage of a Liberty turnover on transition to end the shutout bid on a turnaround shot from the left side by Braden Rome with 8:54 left in the first half.

Then, with the Sun Devils in a man-up situation, James Gartland assisted Kyle Decker from behind the cage for a step-down shot from the right side, trimming the deficit to 5-2.

At the 4:09 mark, Rome sent a pass from the top of the box to Frank Kirk down low, where he pivoted and sent a low shot past Warnstrom, cutting the gap to 5-3.

"We knew how tense and close a game that was going to be there," McQuillan said. "From our perspective, going into this game, we said 'This is a team that scores very rapidly, and they can go on a run at any time,' as we saw, going up 5-0 before they came back and scored the next three."

The Flames finally ended a 17-minute scoring drought with a fast-break finish by Cahill as he was falling down on a rush down the right side of the box, extending the lead to 6-3 just 1 second before halftime.

Luke-Branham-Braden-Landry — Sophomore Luke Branham (left) netted four goals to pace the Flames' attack.

"We did a good job of stealing back the momentum with Easton's goal at the very end of the half," McQuillan said. "The game played out very similarly to what we expected. We knew it was going to be a close game so we knew we needed to get a lead, and to try to control it. We wanted to minimize the opportunities we gave them to score on transition, but they still had success in doing that."

Rome started the second-half scoring by working off a pick past a Liberty defender as he emerged from behind the left side of the cage and whipped an angled shot past Warnstrom at the 11:07 mark.

Less than a minute later, Sun Devils attackman Ryan Kuptz powered around Flames senior defender Matthew Walker in the left side of the box and deposited a high shot into the upper netting to cut Liberty's lead to 6-5.

Mohs made a move from behind the cage and finished from point-blank range in front to pad the edge to 7-5 before taking a hit in the back.

Matt Decker set up Kyle Decker in the right side of the box where he ripped a shot from the perimeter past Warnstrom at the 5:25 mark of the third quarter, before Branham responded by completing his hat trick with a running shot with a hitch down the left side of the box at the 4:41 mark.

Branham struck again with 3:30 left in the third, with Rockhill finding him cutting down the left side of the box for a backhanded finish, pushing the Flames' lead to 9-6.

In the final second of a man-up opportunity, Gartland assisted Rome on a critical goal that drew them back within 9-7 with 1:11 left in the third.

Just over a minute into the fourth quarter, the Decker brothers brought the Sun Devils back within a goal with Matt again assisting Kyle on a fast-break finish on the right side.

With 8:17 to go, Geary received an entry feed from Rockhill, who had taken a kick-out pass from Cahill, and put away an uncontested shot directly in front to give the Flames a 10-8 advantage.

However, Rome's fourth goal of the game on a fast-break finish from a sharp-angled run from the left side brought ASU back to within 10-9 with 6:45 remaining in regulation.

That's how the game stayed for the next 5:55 before Cahill maneuvered between defenders and pushed Liberty's lead to 11-9 with a diving empty-netter.

The Sun Devils struck back with 19 seconds to go on a point-blank finish by Kyle Decker off a feed from Nick Eck, but Houck (who was 8-for-21 on the night) won the ensuing faceoff and the Flames ran out the rest of the clock.

"We get the faceoffs when they really matter, and Jayson getting possession there prevented them from being able to score," McQuillan said. "We've got some great individual players, but this is the most cohesive team that I've been able to coach so far. Arguably, could it be the most talented as well? Maybe, but tonight it was such an absolute team effort."

The Flames are 1-3 all-time against BYU, winning for the first time last spring in Provo, Utah, 10-9, before losing at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla., 14-12, on March 14 over Spring Break.

"We had the lead going into the fourth quarter that game, and we gave it up," McQuillan said. "We have to protect it if we can get it and not give it back, as we did to finish out our season at the ALC Tournament, and these last two games here. BYU has been consistently good against us, but we are hoping to turn the tides and get one back very similar to the way we were able to do to both Virginia Tech and Northeastern, coming out with a win down the stretch when it was a little more important."

The Flames won't have much time to savor their sixth consecutive win, knowing they will need a seventh on Thursday morning to advance to Saturday afternoon's DI national final for the first time.

"These guys played and represented themselves and their program so well and they deserve to be here," McQuillan said. "We were here last year so it's definitely not new territory for us. We are looking forward to our matchup on Thursday and hopefully pushing through to our first national championship."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer