Men’s lacrosse pulls away from Yellow Jackets with five-goal spurt at start of second half

Friday, February 28

Lynchburg, VA

7:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Georgia Tech

Graduate middie Keaton Mohs celebrates completing his hat trick with a wraparound goal at the start of the second half. He also distributed three assists against the Yellow Jackets. (Photos by Kendall Tidwell)

Men’s lacrosse pulls away from Yellow Jackets with five-goal spurt at start of second half

2/28/2025 11:45:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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Liberty got 10 goals from its top three attackmen, including three goals and three assists by graduate Keaton Mohs, 19 faceoff wins and 18 ground balls by graduate FOS Caleb Hammett, and 13 saves by sophomore goalie Ian Carvajal in the 15-11 victory.

Gallery: (2-28-2025) Men's lacrosse vs. Georgia Tech

In celebration of Friday night's 15-11 triumph over Virginia Tech at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields — and Head Coach Kyle McQuillan's 41st birthday — members of Liberty University's men's lacrosse team hoisted McQuillan on their shoulders for a brief "Rudy" moment after serenading him with a spirited singing of "Happy Birthday" in an impromptu post-game huddle.

Last year, on McQuillan's 40th, Liberty sustained a 10-9 defeat in blustery conditions at ALC rival Virginia Tech, which repeated the feat in a season-opening setback in Lynchburg, Va., on Feb. 8. As much as those setbacks left a sour taste in the Flames' mouths, Friday's win — their third in a row — was at least as sweet, and significant from a historical standpoint.

"Having Georgia Tech here in Lynchburg is kind of like a bucket list moment for us," McQuillan said. "We've been trying to get Georgia Tech here for a long time because it's just a program that I have a ton of respect for and a lot of things that we've done we've kind of modeled after them, and a few other programs."

The Flames (3-1) broke open a 5-5 tie at halftime by going on a five-goal flurry against the reigning SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference champion Yellow Jackets (6-2) in the first five minutes of the third quarter.

"That stretch is the team that I think we are capable of, that we are slowly finding," McQuillan said. "Lacrosse is just about a bunch of moments and moments don't win you lacrosse games unless you stack them on top of each other. There are still a lot of things we need to work on, and I didn't like everything about tonight, obviously, but for us, that stretch is something we are going to point to … We just have to find it more consistently."

A trio of attackmen — graduates Keaton Mohs (three goals, three assists) and Braden Landry (4G, 2A) and junior Luke Branham (3G, 1A) — combined for 10 of the Flames' 15 goals and six of their nine assists on the night.

"Our offense was pretty attack-heavy, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more production from midfield, but the best part of tonight from an offensive perspective is we ran three midfield lines all night from start to finish," McQuillan said. "We had nine guys in rotation, every line participating, every line scoring. That's the type of depth that we need, and it's also super helpful with the fact that we need to turn around and play Texas (Saturday) morning, so giving us a little bit of rest on our legs."

Graduate faceoff specialist Caleb Hammett won 19 of 25 attempts and picked up 18 ground balls.

"I don't want to say we're getting used to it, but Caleb just gives us such an advantage in the faceoff dot and gave us a ton of additional possessions and opportunities and he continues to be a huge asset to us," McQuillan said. "Credit to Georgia Tech. Their faceoff unit gave us more troubles than we anticipated, and they gave us a run for our money, especially in that second half."

Flames sophomore goalie Ian Carvajal held his ground and made some critical saves during key stretches of the contest, keeping the Flames in front.

"Ian played a great game," McQuillan said. "He made 13 saves and allowed 11 goals, which is right where we need him to be."

Liberty broke a 3-3 tie at the outset of the second quarter when Mohs spotted Branham with a phenomenal pass from the top of the box into the right crease for a point-blank finish at the 14:11 mark.

The Yellow Jackets answered by capitalizing on a Flames turnover on the ensuing faceoff and third-chance finish from close range but Hammett won the following faceoff and held onto it before Branham scored again after making a dodge around a defender in the right side of the box.

Flames freshman James McKnight struck a post with a shot from up top before Georgia Tech attack Pierce Quarles ripped his second goal from the right side of the box on the other end, tying the game at 5 at the 4:04 mark.

Mohs struck for the go-ahead goal just 25 seconds after the opening faceoff of the third quarter won by Hammett with a fantastic drive down the left side of the box and finish into the top-right corner of the cage, sparking the 5-0 scoring spurt over the next four minutes.

At the 12:12 mark, he finished an incredible backhanded wraparound from behind the right post into the top-right corner of the net, doubling the lead to 7-5.

"That second half, Keaton really started getting going, which gave us some of the juice," McQuillan said.

Then, six seconds after the ensuing faceoff, again won by Hammett, Landry rocketed a short-ranged shot from the right side of the box into the back of the net off a short feed from Mohs.

Less than a minute later, freshman middie Josiah Hoopman made a dazzling diagonal move down the left side of the box for a high-percentage finish with 11:20 still to play in the third quarter before sophomore middie Hunter Rockhill punctuated the run for a 10-5 lead at the 10:35 mark.

After a Liberty turnover on a clear attempt, Georgia Tech stopped the bleeding when middie Matthew Seifert unleashed a shot from the top of the box, before the Yellow Jackets' attack stung again on a running shot down the left side, trimming the deficit to 10-7 at the 5:40 mark.

Landry extended the Flames' advantage to 11-7 with a left-handed sidearm shot through traffic on the right side before Branham stretched it to 12-7 by receiving a feed from Landry in front and making a spin move before scooping a backhand under the defender's stick and inside the right post. Liberty sophomore middie Harris Shook capped a 3-0 run with 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter with a running shot from the perimeter into the top-left corner of the net, padding the Flames' lead to 13-7.

The Yellow Jackets netted the only two goals in the first half of the fourth quarter, with attack Brooks Baro making an uncontested run through traffic for a point-blank finish at the 7:35 mark to make it a 13-9 contest.

But the Flames bumped their lead back up to five goals just under the five-minute mark when Mohs set up junior middie Luke Campbell with an assist from behind the net. The cage was knocked off its moorings when a defender ran into the back side of the net while guarding a Flames player near the right post, but the shot was ruled a goal even after the disruption.

Georgia Tech middie Carl Dagher's fast-break finish while falling down cut the gap to 14-10 with 3:35 to play. But after Hammett won the ensuing faceoff, the Yellow Jackets applied a 10-man ride to try to force a turnover and it backfired when Mohs finished an empty-netter after making a run from behind the cage, all but sealing the contest with 2:57 to play.

"We're stacking some good wins up here," McQuillan said. "It's early in the season, and our schedule is much more competitive on the front end so these are important games for us that we need to capitalize on now."

He said the offensive execution was much sharper than in the season-opening loss to Virginia Tech.

"It's getting better. We'd love to be firing on all cylinders right out of the gate in the first game of the year, but that wasn't in the cards for us," McQuillan said. "We're figuring things out and hopefully it's going to make us a better team long-term."

For now, he and his players are fully focused on the task at hand, with a quick turnaround before hosting defending Lone Star Alliance champion Texas at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"We've got to have a short-term memory here in getting ready for Texas that apparently had a pretty competitive game at Virginia Tech," McQuillan said, noting the Longhorns trailed Virginia Tech at halftime before rallying to defeat the Hokies, 13-12. "They'll be excited I'm sure and we've got to be ready because I know Texas is a formidable team. We've never played Texas, so this is brand new. Having a team with the name-brand recognition and being as far away from Lynchburg as Texas is, it's just a really cool matchup and I hope a lot of people show up to see it."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer