Liberty senior defender Stephen Westlake works alongside freshman Kason Brehm to guard the Flames' cage against the Cougars on Thursday in Round Rock, Texas. (Photos by Andrew Musser)
Men’s lacrosse can’t corral Cougars in 20-12 MCLA semifinal setback
5/9/2024 5:20:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
Liberty lost the faceoff battle 25-9 and came up on the short end of the stick on the scoreboard for the fourth time in five meetings with BYU, the top-ranked team in the nation.
The faceoff dot proved to be the downfall for Liberty University's No. 4-seeded men's lacrosse team in Thursday's MCLA National Championship semifinal showdown with No. 1 BYU, which won for the fourth time in five meetings over the past four seasons, 20-12 in Round Rock, Texas.
With sophomore middie Shane Supek still sidelined by a broken foot suffered in a March 21 win over then-No. 2-ranked Utah Valley, the Cougars (18-0) burned the Flames (14-5) repeatedly, winning 25 of 34 faceoffs to maintain a significant advantage in time of possession.
"We can pick apart a lot of what went wrong today, but we just got outmatched at the faceoff dot," Liberty Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "I don't think our offense or defense, or even our faceoff unit, let us down, but that has been part of our game that we've not been able to compensate for since Supek went down. We tried a lot of different looks, throwing the kitchen sink at them, but it is hard to beat any team with that type of winning percentage. When you are playing the best offensive team we've seen, our defense just got worn down because of the time advantage they were able to maintain on offense."
Liberty started the scoring with a fadeaway shot by junior midfielder Will Geary that skipped in from the top-right side of the box. Flames senior goalie Eric Warnstrom saved two bouncing shots from the top of the box by the Cougars over the first seven minutes of play before BYU's Alton Taylor fed a pass into fellow attackman Cade Kirschner for a short bounce shot from deep in the left side of the box that tied it at 1-1 with 8:11 left in the first quarter.
BYU won the ensuing faceoff after a Liberty timeout before Cougars middie Max Roberts netted the go-ahead goal unassisted with a run through traffic in the left side of the box and upper-net finish at the 7:25 mark.
Roberts struck again with a shot from the top left side that skipped past Warnstrom, stretching BYU's lead to 3-1 with 2:08 left in the first quarter. Senior attack Jake Halversen, who netted 55 goals on the season and added five more against the Flames, extended the Cougars' advantage to 4-1 early in the second quarter, firing a sidearm rocket from the right side.
The Flames started with freshman Jayson Houck taking faceoffs without much success before junior LSM Benjamin Chun won his first try from the dot, only to have Liberty turn the ball back over.
BYU capitalized and proceeded to pad its lead to 8-1 at the 8:08 mark of the second quarter with successive scores over the next five minutes. The scoring spurt was sparked by a dodging drive from behind the cage by Halversen, who finished with a turnaround shot into the top-left corner of the net, and a running rip by Kirschner from the right side off an entry feed from Dalin Clark.
"When we were preparing for BYU, coming into the tournament, we knew they have possibly one of the best offenses if not the best in the nation," McQuillan said. "To combat that, we needed to limit their possessions. We have an equally potent offense, which is a strength of both teams, (but) in the second quarter, we were under 10 minutes before our offense even got on the field. We did a good job of minimizing their opportunities in transition but didn't do a great job in clearing and had a few too many uncharacteristic unforced errors."
Flames junior LSM Conor Guiltinan won his first faceoff try of the contest and the Flames stopped the bleeding on a second goal by Geary, who beat his man and fired an off-hip shot from the top-left side of the box with 6:59 left in the first half.
But BYU answered after a turnover on transition, as Halversen took a dodge-down, throw-back pass from Taylor and unleashed a snipe from the right side to push the edge to 9-2.
Taylor started the second-half scoring by slipping around Chun on a deep drive from the right side and point-blank finish past Warnstrom.
Liberty trimmed the gap to 10-3 after senior attack Keaton Mohs threaded an assist from behind the cage to a cutting Geary, who completed his hat trick by firing on the run past freshman goalie Easton Wilkey with 9:15 to play in the third quarter.
But Taylor followed suit, darting between defenders out from behind the left side of the goal and sending a perfectly placed pass into Kirschner in front for a finish at the 7:33 mark. Less than 30 seconds later, after winning the ensuing faceoff, Easton Carter fired a flamethrower from the left side that extended BYU's advantage to 12-3.
After deflecting a sharp-angled shot from the left side by Gavin Taylor with a quick reaction stick save, Warnstrom could do nothing to stop Clark's putback from the right crease that expanded the Cougars' lead to 13-3 at the 6:02 mark.
Exactly one minute later, Stew Vassau uncorked an incredible shot over Flames freshman defender Kason Brehm into the top-left corner pocket for a commanding 14-3 edge.
Geary fought through contact and put away his fourth goal from point-blank range with 3:28 left in the third. Then, exactly a minute later, Mohs made a spectacular clearing run before setting up senior attack Braden Landry for a fast-break finish on a rip from the right side, cutting the deficit to 14-5.
However, Halversen dodged past Chun and split defenders with a shot from the top of the box before BYU faceoff specialist Bennett Malley stayed perfect in duels at the dot with his fifth faceoff win and went in for his third goal of the season to put the Cougars in complete command, up 16-5 going into the fourth.
Mohs started the fourth-quarter scoring by working off a pick and faking a shovel pass before scoring on an over-the-top finish. After Geary was hit in the head, giving the Flames a two-minute man-up opportunity, Mohs delivered again with a beautiful wraparound backhand from the right side and followed that up with a fantastic change of direction dodge and deft finish from the left side, cutting the deficit to 16-8 with 12:02 to go.
With the man-up opportunity winding down, Geary hit a pipe with his perimeter shot and grabbed the rebound only to allow BYU to stick check it away near midfield. That triggered a fast break finished by Gavin Taylor off an assist from Halversen.
Geary answered with his fifth goal off a terrific driving finish outside the left crease, but Malley won another faceoff and responded with his second unassisted score for an 18-9 advantage.
Sophomore attack Luke Branham put away his first goal on a running shot down the left side to make it 18-10 with 8:55 remaining.
Freshman goalie Ian Carvajal replaced Warnstrom (10 saves) and made a great kick save of a high-percentage shot before BYU ran down the clock and Clark capitalized on an entry feed from Kirschner, stretching the lead to 19-10 with 6:17 to play.
Geary had his shot from the top of the box stopped by Wilkey, who then turned it over before Landry pocketed the loose ball into the back of the net for his second score. Halversen pushed BYU's lead to 20-11 with 2:12 to play before Flames freshman attack Easton Cahill capped the scoring with an unassisted finish.
"Going into the fourth quarter, with how the game had unfolded to that point, we told our guys it's not over until it's over and we were going to define our season by how they played over the final 15 minutes," McQuillan said. "The guys were not going to quit and outscored them 7-4 in the fourth quarter, so that was a huge positive, and I was proud of the way they continued to battle and how they finished. They showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight, and that's how I want them to remember this season."
Senior defender Matthew Walker concluded his career with a solid game, forcing four BYU turnovers, and freshman LSM Peyton Park added a team-high four ground-ball pickups.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Kylee (Lilge) Wright/Club Sports Video & Media Coordinator
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