SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College men's lacrosse team, which is ranked third in the nation, improved to 12-1 overall and finished its 2005 Old Dominion Athletic Conference regular season schedule with a perfect 6-0 record after beating Virginia Wesleyan College 18-5 on Saturday afternoon in Salem, VA. The Maroons, who will be the number-one seed in the upcoming ODAC tournament, tie a school-record with their 12th win of the season.
Roanoke sophomore
Jon Mason scored the first goal of the game for the Maroons, finishing a
Tug Schroeder feed from behind the cage to give the Maroons a 1-0 lead with 9:07 left in the first. Mason's goal was the first of his seven in the contest.
Adam Leahy made the score 2-0 in Roanoke's just 17 seconds later as he worked his way through the VWC defense to score an unassisted goal.
Dan Reed then gave the Maroons a 3-0 lead, that before the Marlins scored with just five seconds left in the first quarter, that a goal by Brendan Rooney.
Roanoke's defense then held the Marlin offense off the board for the entire second quarter. After getting outshot 8-7 in the first quarter, the Maroons rattled off 24 shots in the second quarter alone. The Maroons outscored the Marlins 6-0 in the frame. Freshman
Matt Duke gave the Maroons a 4-1 lead and then Mason scored two unassisted goals, the second of which came on rebound off a Tyler Sothoron save. Mason was able to find the ball in mid-air and swat it into the cage.
Chris Keating,
Zack Thomas, and Leahy all scored in the final nine minutes of the second quarter to give the Maroons a 9-1 halftime lead.
The Maroons pushed their lead out to as many as 12 goals, 13-1, in the third quarter. Mason scored twice to get the second half rolling and
Ryan Wilkerson and
Brendan Moore each tallied goals to give the Maroons the 13-1 lead. Matt Lewis and Maican Dunk responded for the Marlins to make the score 13-3. Dunk's goal was a man-up scored with 3:15 left in the second.
After Mason scored the final goal of the third, Virginia Wesleyan's Doug Colonell answered early in the final period. Mason scored a man-up goal and
Matt Nicola and Scott Lindberg scored for the Maroons to make the score 17-4. Lindberg earned an assist on the Nicola goal and freshman
Cody Kelly on the Lindberg tally. Bret Morris scored on a Hunter Smith feed to close the VWC scoring and the Maroons added a late man-up score to make the final 18-5.
Mason finished the day with seven goals and an assist and in the process moved over 100 points for his Roanoke College career. He finished the day with 103. He also moved to within one goal of tying Brett Smith's single-season Roanoke goals record of 56. Eleven different Maroons scored goal on Saturday, including Reed who had the one and added three assists. Morris was the lone Marlin player to record more than one point, ended the day with a goal and an assist.
Virginia Wesleyan's Sothoron finished the day with 19 saves, including nine alone in the second quarter.
Matt Madalon made 12 saves in just over 55 minutes, allowing four goals.
Drew Bowers and
Jeremiah Morrow each made one save.
The Maroons will next play the Tigers of Hampden-Sydney College in the semifinals of the ODAC tournament. The game will be played on Tuesday afternoon in Salem. Game time is scheduled for 4:00pm. The Maroons won the regular season meeting between the two clubs 11-9 in Salem.
