Romero’s Seven Goals Lead Statesmen Past Taylor

Upland, Ind.--The William Penn men's lacrosse team opened an important road trip out east by defeating Taylor 18-14 in non-conference play Thursday.

In a physical bout that featured 27 penalties, WPU (7-4) outshot Taylor 63-45, while also winning the face-off (25-8) and ground ball (44-34) battles.

Tim Pennington (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Biology) got things going for the navy and gold in the fourth minute with an unassisted goal.  The Trojans (2-3) responded five minutes later, but back-to-back goals for Boston Romero (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management), including one assisted by Breck Putizer (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology), put the Statesmen up 3-1.

Taylor had the final say in the quarter, however, bringing the score to 3-2 after 15 minutes of play.

The Trojans opened the second period with three consecutive goals as they pulled out to a 5-3 lead just five minutes into the stanza.  Seth Read (So., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology) then stopped the scoring drought for WPU with an unassisted goal, but Taylor answered in a back-and-forth game that included seven ties and four lead changes.

A couple minutes later, Putzier TU's goalkeeper, while Romero, who topped WPU with seven goals, tallied two more to put the navy and gold ahead 7-6 going into halftime.

Taylor scored first out of the locker room, but William Penn countered, this time with a goal from Jeff Kohl (Fr., Gilbert, Ariz., Business Management) with help from Putzier.  The teams then exchanged goals again as Kenny Bohney (Fr., Moorhead, Minn.) got the one-goal advantage back for the visitors.

The lead unfortunately did not last for long as TU tallied two goals less than a minute apart to claim its final edge at 10-9.  Fortunately, right after the second Trojan score of the sequence, William Penn shifted momentum right back with four unanswered tallies in a span of 50 seconds.  Putzier, Christensen (with a Putzier assist), Romero, and Aiden Johnson (Fr., Oregon City, Ore., Business Management) all found the netting as the Statesmen took the lead for good at 13-10.

The home team scored first in the final stanza, but William Penn would not allow its opponent to get any closer than two goals as Christensen and Kohl both scored. TU was not done as it posted two goals in a row, but the Statesmen finished out the contest with three goals in a row--two from Romero and the other from Bohney.

Like Romero, Putzier also had a part in seven tallies as he scored twice and assisted five times. Christensen, Bohney, and Kohl produced multiple-goal performances as well with two scores each.

Ryan Swarts (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) was nearly untouchable in the face-off circle by winning 22 of his 28 chances, while Eric Garigan (Jr., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science) kept the Trojans at bay just enough by securing nine saves in the win.

"Coming off spring break and going into conference play Saturday, we probably overlooked this game a bit," Head Coach Luke Christiansen said.  "That being said, we did a good job battling through adversity to get a great road win that moves us closer to our objectives."

Next Up: The Statesmen will travel to Mount Vernon, Ohio Saturday to take on Mount Vernon Nazarene in their Heart of America Athletic Conference opener at 11 a.m. (Central)