Putzier Leads William Penn to Double-Figure Win Over Taylor

St. Louis, Mo.--Breck Putzier (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Exercise Science) had a part in more than half of his squad's goals Friday as the Statesmen men's lacrosse team defeated Taylor (Ind.) 18-8 in non-conference action.

#6 WPU (5-1) took care of the Trojans (0-4) in an outing where it outshot its foe 67-36 in the neutral-site battle (hosted by Missouri Baptist).

The navy and gold tallied the first two goals of the night with Tim Pennington (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Biology) scoring the first goal unassisted at the 13:07 mark and Max Taylor (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management) sending a pass from Nate Blasingame (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management) into the netting 55 seconds later.

Nearly four minutes passed before the Trojans finally got on the board with 8:30 left in the first quarter, but a trio of Statesmen goals made it 5-1.  Seth Read (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology) and Collin Baliva (Sr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering) both did their work without any help, while Putzier took a delivery from Blasingame and beat the TU goalkeeper.

The Trojans trimmed the margin to two at the end of the period and then did so again following goals from Putzier (unassisted) and Wyatt Christensen (So., Madison, Wis., Biology) (from Putzier).  Up just 7-5 midway through the second stanza, William Penn closed out the opening half with three unanswered goals as Taylor, Boston Romero (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management), and Putzier all got shots to finish in the goal for a 10-5 halftime lead.

The second half was much of the same with the navy and gold continuing to impose their will., namely via Putzier.  The junior scored once in the third alongside a pair of assists, while all four of WPU's fourth-quarter goals had Putzier's stamp on them.  Putzier scored three times in the final period and helped on the other tally.

For the game, the junior scored seven goals with four assists for 11 points.  It is the fourth time in his career that he has eclipsed double figures in points; no other player in school history has accomplished the feat more than once.

Putzier also notched seven ground balls in the victory, while Baliva picked up eight; overall, WPU posted a 39-25 edge in ground balls.

Taylor was next for William Penn's offense with three goals, while Romero had two scores.  Christensen (one goal, two assists) and Blasingame (two assists) factored into multiple goals as well.

The victors won 19 of the 29 faceoffs with Ryan Swarts (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) finishing 17-for-23.  The senior has now tallied more than 600 career faceoff victories.  William Penn committed 21 turnovers, compared to 29 for Taylor, with Max Standage (So., Gilbert, Ariz., Public Accounting) causing three of those Trojan errors.  The Statesmen made life especially difficult for Taylor in clears as it finished 21-for-32.  WPU, on the other hand, was 23-for-26 in clearing tries.

Eric Garigan (Grad., Tucson, Ariz., Master's of Organizational Leadership) was again stout in front of the cage with 11 saves Friday.

"I am really proud of our guys for taking care of business against a feisty and physical opponent," Head Coach Luke Christiansen said.  "Taylor gave us its best shot and we did a good job responding.  This was a great game to learn from as we move forward."

Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa next Saturday for its home opener in Statesmen Community Stadium, hosting Ottawa (Kan.) in non-conference play at 3 p.m.