Slow Start Pushes LaGrange Past The Hawks

LAGRANGE, Ga.- Coming off a loss in what turned out to be an offensive shootout at Southern Virginia, Huntingdon Men's Lacrosse continued their road stretch, this time traveling to face LaGrange College.

After falling behind 5-1 at the end of the first quarter, the Hawks couldn't recover, dropping to the Panthers 14-6.

How it happened

LaGrange opened the game on an offensive tear, scoring three unanswered goals in the opening six minutes to grab an early advantage. Kelcey Marston put in a goal at the 3:43 mark in the quarter to momentarily stop the bleeding, but two more Panther goals extended the LaGrange lead to 5-1 before the start of the second quarter.

The Hawks struck first in the second quarter, as Marston cashed in off a pass from Austin Smith to cut the LaGrange lead to 5-2 at the 8:37 mark. Mason Honeycutt followed up on the ensuing possession, winning the face-off and sneaking a shot past the goalkeeper as the deficit shrunk to just two goals, 5-3 with eight minutes remaining until halftime. With just 35 seconds remaining until the break, LaGrange put in a goal to take a 6-3 lead into the locker room. 

Similar to the start of the second quarter, Tristan Dial got the scoring started in the second half with a goal at the 11:38 mark, bringing Huntingdon within 2, 6-4. The rest of the quarter proved to be controlled by LaGrange's offensive attack, as the Panthers outscored the Hawks 3-0 in the remainder of the period, bringing their lead to 9-4 entering the fourth quarter.

The Panthers continued to pour it on in the early stages of the fourth quarter, growing their lead to 11-4 by the 12:56 mark. Josh Knost scored his first goal of the night with 10:15 remaining to briefly cut into the LaGrange lead, but his goal was matched at the 8:28 mark as the Panthers brought their lead back to 7, 12-5. Tristan Dial scored again shortly after to bring the score to 12-6, but two more LaGrange goals in the final stages put the Hawks away, 14-6.

In the goal

Liam Angst played all 60 minutes in the goal for Huntingdon and recorded 8 saves on 22 shots, falling to 2-6 on the season.

The Hawks look to bounce back at home on March 29th, hosting the Pfeiffer University Falcons. Gametime is set for 2:00 PM CT.