Men’s lacrosse gets balanced production from attack, defense to rout Wolfpack

Saturday, February 15

Apex, NC

4:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

NC State University

Liberty's defense, led by senior LSM Conor Guiltinan (center) made a major impact against the Wolfpack, sparking the offense out of the transition game.

Men’s lacrosse gets balanced production from attack, defense to rout Wolfpack

2/15/2025 11:18:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Liberty got hat tricks from graduate attackmen Keaton Mohs and Braden Landry as well as senior middie Will Geary in the 18-8 win, evening its record at 1-1.

Graduate attackmen Keaton Mohs and Braden Landry and senior midfielder Will Geary all scored hat tricks to account for exactly half of Liberty University's men's lacrosse team's scoring in Saturday's 18-8 victory over Atlantic Lacrosse Conference (ALC) South foe North Carolina State at the Apex (N.C.) Sports Complex.

"That was a lot of point production," Flames Head coach Kyle McQuillan said. "We learned some hard lessons from the Virginia Tech game (last Saturday's 16-12 season-opening home loss) that we saw our guys take advantage of today, and there were still things from today's game that we are going to be able to learn from. I am looking forward to getting the film from today to identify and make changes. There is a lot we need to continue to work on."

McQuillan was equally impressed with the offensive contributions from the LSMs and defensive middies, who accounted for half as many goals (four) as the Flames' defense allowed. Like last week, senior defender Conor Guiltinan got a goal along with sophomore defensive middie Kason Brehm, and sophomore LSM Peyton Park.

"Parker Ackerman, a freshman who we moved from the offensive midfield to the defensive midfied as a result of last week's injury to (senior) Peyton Doyle, scored as well," he said, noting that Doyle could be sidelined for the next 6-8 weeks. "Parker did a great job of stepping in and filling his shoes. He has a fantastic attitude, is very coachable, and willing to do whatever the team needs."
Ackerman received the team's flame chain award for his efforts.

Defensively, Liberty allowed a few more second-half scores than McQuillan would have liked after opening a 12-3 halftime advantage.

"We had hoped for a little more of a productive second half, and we didn't want to give as many opportunities as we did to N.C. State, but credit to them for playing all four quarters," he said. "We were, however, able to go pretty far into our bench to get some guys a little further down our depth chart opportunities to play on both sides of the ball."

That included at the faceoff dot where graduate specialist Caleb Hammett won 14 of 17 chances and picked up nine ground balls in the first half before being relieved by senior middie Shane Supek, who won 3 of 9 opportunities.

In addition to his three goals, Mohs distributed a game-high five assists while junior attack Luke Branham added two goals and one assist and freshman middle Josiah Hoopman one of each. Sophomore goalie Ian Carvajal made three saves and allowed five goals through three quarters before freshman Sam Hoffman made five saves and allowed three goals in the fourth quarter.
Liberty's offense was balanced between fast-break scoring and goals out of its set attack.

"When you have a lot of guys on the defensive side of the ball scoring, that usually means you've had a pretty good day in transition," McQuillan said. "I was happy with the offensive output all day, with our red line (Geary and sophomore middies Hunter Rockhill and Luke Campbell), white line, and blue line all getting good production."

The game was moved to the turf field from the Wolfpack's grass stadium on campus in Raleigh, N.C., and the start time pushed back three hours due to extensive rain.

"The field we're used to playing on on-campus turns into mud pit when it rains," McQuillan said. "We are grateful to N.C. State for making the change. This was a good venue, and the weather didn't have too much of an impact. Guys were losing their footing, and both sides struggled with that, and it slowed things down a little bit, but both teams handled it well."

After more snowfall in the forecast, he is hopeful the Flames will be able to make the trip out of Lynchburg, Va., for next Sunday's 1 p.m. game at the University of South Carolina.

"We are going to keep an eye on the weather, and we are not sure if it's going to impact some of our travel plans," McQuillan said.

The Gamecocks are one of the top teams out of the SELC and perennial MCLA national contenders who Liberty has never beaten in South Carolina.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer