William Penn Rolls Over Rams for 2-0 Start

West Des Moines--The Statesmen men's lacrosse team cruised past another foe on neutral ground, defeating Cornell 18-4 in non-conference play Saturday.

WPU (2-0), which once again served as the host at the neutral site of the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex, dominated possession with a 60-16 edge in shots over Cornell.

Breck Putzier (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) started the contest right where he left off last weekend with back-to-back goals, including one assisted by Ryan Swarts (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) to get the navy and gold out to an early 2-1 lead. Wyatt Christensen (Fr., Madison, Wis., Biology) then followed up Putzier with a goal of his own as the Statesmen led 3-1 at the end of the first quarter.

The scoring kept coming from WPU as Brady Treloar (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management) found the net with help from Putzier.  Tim Pennington (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Biology), Eli Dillon (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management), and Collin Baliva (Jr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering) then scored consecutive goals to give William Penn a 7-2 lead heading into intermission.

Putzier continued to find the back of the net in the third period, scoring three of the six navy and gold goals in the quarter. Three other Statesmen also tallied goals in the lopsided third quarter as WPU put it away, going up 12-2.

In the final stanza, Boston Romero (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) and Dillon extended the Statesmen lead, but Cornell responded with two goals of its own although it was not enough. Multiple scores from Max Taylor (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management), including one assisted by Kenny Bohney (Fr., Moorhead, Minn.,), and another score by Seth Read (So., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology) closed out the William Penn tally marks.

Putzier led WPU with five goals and two helpers, while Romero, Treloar, Dillon, and Taylor all tallied two goals on the night.

William Penn controlled the face-off circle by winning 25 of its 26 chances. Swarts won all 10 of his chances, while Nick Hajnasiewicz (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) won eight and Joshua Bell (Grad., Castle Rock, Colo., Master of Organizational Leadership) finished with seven face-off victories.

Dillon Woods (Fr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Industrial Technology) guided the goalkeeping squad with two saves.

"We made some key improvements from week one, putting together a much more complete game," Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. "Our defense and face-off unit really stepped up today. We will take our lessons learned from this game and prepare to face the #3 team in the country in the coming days."

Next Up: William Penn will travel down to Williamsburg, Ky. next Friday to face Cumberlands in non-conference action at 6 p.m.