No. 5-ranked Flames fend off No. 3 Gamecocks, 11-8, in battle of unbeatens

Saturday, February 28

Lynchburg, VA

5:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

University of South Carolina

Liberty men's lacrosse vs. South Carolina

Flames sophomore middie Will Morris is hugged from behind by senior attack Luke Branham, who netted a hat trick, providing the difference in the 11-8 win over the Gamecocks. (Photos by Emily Cuthrell)

No. 5-ranked Flames fend off No. 3 Gamecocks, 11-8, in battle of unbeatens

2/28/2026 10:20:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Photo Gallery

Liberty (4-0) dealt South Carolina (7-1) its first defeat as its defense turned in its best performance of the season to date.

Gallery: (2-28-2026) Men's lacrosse vs. South Carolina

In an early-season men's lacrosse showdown between No. 5-ranked Liberty University — the reigning MCLA national champion and top team in the Atlantic Lacrosse Conference — and No. 3-ranked South Carolina, the top team in the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference, the Flames (4-0) rose to the challenge and upset the Gamecocks (7-1) on a spectacular Saturday night, winning 11-8 at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.

"It's a great win," said Flames Head Coach Kyle McQuillan, who also celebrated his 42nd birthday on Saturday. "I love playing South Carolina. They're probably my favorite team to play every year outside of our conference. It's just always super competitive, and they've obviously had a tremendous start to their season, so for us to get a win between two undefeated teams, we were fortunate."

Junior goalie Ian Carvajal made 13 saves to anchor a stellar defensive performance, and Liberty senior attack Luke Branham and junior attack Easton Cahill both netted three goals and an assist to spark the offense.

"(Carvajal) was just so important to our success tonight," McQuillan said. "He made some really big saves, especially late, and got some help from the crossbar a few times tonight, but he played tremendous."

South Carolina had already posted wins over No. 6 Tennessee — the ALC preseason favorite, 9-8 — and Virginia Tech, 13-6 on Friday night in Blacksburg, Va.

"We put ourselves in good position today to at least not lose any position in the national rankings," McQuillan said, noting the game was far from perfect. "There were a lot of penalties, unfortunately, and a lot of stupid mistakes on our part, which gave South Carolina a lot of chances to remain in the game. There are things we need to work on, so we were fortunate. I feel grateful we were able to get a victory."

He credited a defense that he considered an area of concern entering the season.

"Our defense played phenomenally," McQuillan said. "If you had to give the advantage to one side of the ball in terms of helping us get it done tonight, defense was huge. That was probably for me the biggest question mark coming into the season because of how much youth we had especially on the defensive side of the ball, and tonight they played like a bunch of seasoned veterans."

He also gave props to senior faceoff specialist Shane Supek, who only won 12 out of 22 faceoffs for the game, but came up with a huge loose ball and drew a penalty that led to an insurance goal for the Flames.

"The faceoff was just a battle," McQuillan said. "Shane did a great job. He won the vast majority of the faceoffs, though we struggled a little with the ground ball after the faceoff wins. He came up huge for us late in that game to ice it in the end."

Early in the second quarter, Liberty tied the game at 2 on Cahill's diving shot into the left crease off one of three assists on the night from junior middie Hunter Rockhill.

Then, at the 8:54 mark, sophomore long-stick middie Will Morris recovered his own loose ball as he drove down the left side of the box and fired a running bounce shot past USC goalie Connor Keenan into the back of the net.

With the Flames on a man advantage after a slashing penalty, sophomore Josiah Hoopman (2 goals, 1 assist) received a feed from Cahill and rifled a shot from the top of the box into the top-left corner of the cage with 7:11 to play in the half.

USC midfielder Colin Jung answered with a running shot down the left side to pull the Gamecocks within 4-3 before Cahill responded with another shot from atop the box to double the advantage in the final minute.

After attackman Casey Hurley scored for USC, Liberty junior middie Harris Shook dodged a defender in the left of the box and stepped up and fired a high shot just under the crossbar at the 12:46 mark to keep the Flames on top, 6-4.

When a South Carolina shot hit the pipe and bounced out of the box, Morris started a fast break with a long clearing run down the center of the field before Branham set up junior long-stick middie Peyton Park with a feed in the right side of the box for a bounce shot from close range that stretched Liberty's lead to 7-4 at the 8:42 mark.

"Peyton was fantastic," McQuillan said. "We moved him down to closed defense this year, and he's so reliable. He's so good, and he does it very quietly and he's been probably our best closed defender."

With 1:36 to play in the third quarter, Cahill received an entry pass near the right crease and bounced off a check from Keenan to muscle a shot from on the ground into the back of the net to pad the lead to 8-4.

Branham extended it to 9-4 with 11:59 remaining in regulation by taking a short feed from Hoopman and ripping a turnaround shot just under the crossbar. The Gamecocks capitalized on a man advantage with Jung cutting it to 9-5 before middie Reese Bocketti scored unassisted at the 7:12 mark to trim the deficit to 9-6. However, Hoopman unleashed a howitzer of a shot from the right side into the top-right corner of the net to boost Liberty's lead to 10-6.

South Carolina stayed in the contest with a fast-break counterattack on a long assist from LSM Luke Gorman at midfield to Hurley for a point-blank finish with 4:54 to play. However, Branham capped a fast-break counterattack by the Flames with a high-percentage shot past Keenan off an entry pass from sophomore middie Parker Ackerman to increase the lead to 11-7 with 2:01 to go and all but seal the victory.

The Flames kept their opponent in single digits in scoring for the third time in four games, but McQuillan said Liberty's set offense was never able to establish itself the way it needs to in order to stand a chance of defending its MCLA crown.

"We didn't see enough of our offense," he said. "We have really talented, individually athletic players, and they were able to showcase themselves tonight, but to have a deep run in the playoffs and to win a national championship, we have to rely on our team offense and getting deep into offensive possessions and running our plays, and we still didn't see enough of that tonight. We won tonight on just being better athletes and being a little more physical at times. We need a lot of work developing our offense."

The Flames will get another chance to polish their execution against another top-five-ranked SELC opponent when Florida State visits the Liberty Lacrosse Fields next Sunday at noon.

"We don't have any easy games from here on out," McQuillan said. "Our schedule will just continue to ramp up. We'll enjoy this, but we've got to get back to work and get ready for Florida State."

Liberty will then play the sixth-rank host Volunteers on March 18 and No. 2 BYU on March 20 in the first two games of its Spring Break trip to Knoxville, Tenn.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer