Liberty University Club Sports Athletics

Reigning MCLA national champion men’s lacrosse team opens season Saturday
2/6/2026 5:43:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
The Flames, who ended the 2025 season on a 19-game winning streak, will host ALC rival North Carolina State at 6 p.m. at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
"We're just rolling with the punches right now," Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "Change has been the theme of this season so far, and we're trying to embrace it."
The Flames graduated a deep and talented group of seniors and graduate students, including MCLA Player of the Year Keaton Mohs, an attackman who became the all-time leading scorer in league history with a 10-point performance in a 20-11 triumph over Arizona State to lead Liberty to its third consecutive national championship semifinal.
Other graduates include Conor Guiltinan, the Atlantic Lacrosse Conference Defensive Player of the Year last season, and fellow MCLA DI First Team selections Braden Landry, an attack who paced the Flames with 69 goals scored, and graduate faceoff specialist Caleb Hamlett, the ALC Specialty Player of the Year who won 333 out of 423 faceoffs.
Liberty also lost Associate Head Coach Mike Zumpano, who helped McQuillan revive the program as a player from 2011-14 before serving the past 12 seasons as defensive coordinator, a role Guiltinan will fill this season as a first-year assistant coach.
"Mike's been a huge part of building the program," McQuillan said, noting Zumpano was a starting long-stick midfielder when he started coaching the team in 2011. "Connor is a great addition to our coaching staff, and he is going to do a phenomenal job of picking up where Mike left off."
Ryan Miller ('16), the 2022 Club Sports Hall of Fame inductee who Mohs eclipsed as the Flames' all-time leading scorer, has also taken a step back from serving as offensive coordinator, a role he has relinquished to Brandon Butler, the former Army (NCAA Division I West Point) middie who joined the staff last season.
"It is going to be hard to recreate what we did last year, and that is a testament to the players and coaches on that team," McQuillan said. "Going back to our foundation and who we are, if we focus on that, the results will take care of themselves."
With 17 freshmen out of 37 players on this season's squad, McQuillan acknowledges the Flames are going through a youth movement but believes they can be a formidable force again this season, starting with Saturday's showdown with ALC rival North Carolina State at 6 p.m. at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
"We're definitely a younger team than in years past, but that can be an advantage," he said. "I am excited to get the season started because the guys have a lot to prove. They are well prepared and ready to go. The only way to gain confidence is through experience, and that's what this season is about — for us to prove to ourselves and each other that we've got a team that can be competitive against the best teams in the country."
He said regardless of the change in personnel, the team's foundation is solid.
"Nothing changes," McQuillan said. "We'll definitely have to make adjustments (but) we've got the same systems and the same program, and we should be able to move some pieces around and find success. The things that are foundational to this program are our culture and the embodiment of who we are as a lacrosse team. We know who we are, and we know what we want to do, and that is a constant that never changes."
The Flames' captains are senior attack Luke Branham (45 goals, 34 assists in 2025), senior middie and faceoff specialist Shane Supek (9G, 10A, 72-111 faceoff wins), and senior defender Brody Ashworth (49 ground balls). Junior attack Easton Cahill (18G, 6A), sophomore middie Josiah Hoopman (23G, 10A), junior middie Hunter Rockhill (15G, 13A), and junior long-stick midfielder Peyton Park (53 GB) complement them as leaders at their respective positions.
In goal, Liberty returns junior Ian Carvajal, who posted a save percentage of 53.5 with 167 saves, and sophomores Sam Hoffman and Jake Hanna, a transfer from NCAA Division III Randolph College.
"We feel great about the stable of goalies we have," McQuillan said. "That is one position we are going to experiment with early in the season. We always have the mentality that the best players play, and if you put in the time, you will (be rewarded). The season will tell, based on continued effort in practice and, most importantly, performance in games."
Maintaining an attitude of thankfulness for the opportunity to play the sport they love and to represent Liberty and Christ by sharing their faith in Him while doing so are priorities McQuillan expects to see from both the Flames' veterans and newcomers.
"We have one core principle that is non-negotiable," he said. "We do everything with gratitude — mainly for the salvation we have in Christ and the freedom we have in Jesus. We ask the guys to do three things: to give (time, treasure, and talent, through acts of service), to grow (to mature as lacrosse players and in their walks with Christ, so they are much better versions of themselves when they graduate), and to grind. If we are able to do those things consistently, the byproduct of that is we gain, in wins, relationships, success on the field, and success off the field."
With the ALC losing Pittsburgh and Temple shifting to the Continental Lacrosse Conference, each team must now play each of the other eight in the conference during the regular season with the top six qualifying for the ALC Championships, to be played at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
"We are happy with the schedule overall, which should be really competitive with trips to play South Carolina, Florida State, and BYU (over Spring Break on March 20 at Knoxville, Tenn.)," McQuillan said. "The ALC continues to get better and better, as teams like Tennessee and Clemson continue to close the gap on us and Virginia Tech. So we've got a schedule that is definitely strong enough to put us in contention for a (ninth straight MCLA) Nationals bid, and we are excited about that. But we've got a lot of work to do before even thinking about nationals. Our focus is on the ALC conference, which we have won in back-to-back years. No one's ever won it three years in a row."
Tennessee, the team Liberty defeated in the past two ALC tournament finals, got the nod as the preseason favorite by one vote over the Flames.
"We've been removed from top spot, based on how many people we graduated," McQuillan said. "We don't put a whole lot of stock in preseason polls. That's why you play the games, and we're looking forward to proving ourselves again this year."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer































