Huge First Quarter Leads Statesmen to Perfect League Record

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's lacrosse team locked up its first-ever outright league title as it blew out Missouri Valley 23-8 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play Saturday.

WPU (12-5, 5-0 Heart) outshot MVC (3-11, 1-4 Heart) 66-22, while also winning the face-off battle 28-7.  The navy and gold held the advantage in groundballs 69-17 as well, while committing just 17 turnovers (30 for Missouri Valley).

Max Taylor (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management) opened the scoring for the navy and gold just 28 seconds into the afternoon, followed by back-to-back goals from Wyatt Christensen (Fr., Madison, Wis., Biology).

Boston Romero (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) scored next (he had all three of his goals in the first quarter), while Breck Putzier (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) added a score as the Statesmen rolled out to a 5-0 advantage by the 11:12 mark.  The Vikings finally scored, but William Penn answered with seven straight for a 12-1 lead after the first quarter.

After a monster opening period, the Statesmen went cold in the second.  Missouri Valley got on the board first in the quarter, while WPU responded with an unassisted goal from Putzier.  The Vikings returned the favor with another goal as the Statesmen led 13-3 at halftime.

The navy and gold preferred the south end of Statesmen Community Stadium Saturday as it switched fields for the third quarter and dominated the stanza with a 7-1 scoring advantage, including goals by Tim Pennington (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Biology), Eli Dillon (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management), and Ian West (Jr., Corona, Calif., Business Management).

MVC opened the final period with a four-goal streak, but the hosts put the win on ice with the final three scores, finished off by Nate Blasingame (So., Portland, Ore., Business Management) and Christopher Lauderdale (Jr., Oakland, Calif., Human Resources).

Christensen guided WPU with five goals and four assists, while Putzier had four scores and four helpers.  Blasingame put three shots away (also assisted twice), and Romero scored three times.  Taylor was a part of four goals as well (two goals, two assists).

Nick Hajnasiewicz (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) was nearly perfect in the faceoff circle by winning 13 of his 15 attempts, while Ryan Swarts (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) finished 15-for-20.

Eric Garigan (Jr., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science) was rarely tested and guided the goalkeeping squad with four saves in the victory.

"We really liked the way we started the game and took care of business" Head Coach Luke Christiansen said. "There was a little bit of complacency once we built a big lead, but the guys responded well out of the hlaf and played hard until the end. What a way to celebrate senior day wrapping up our first conference title."

Next Up: As the top seed in the Heart Championship, William Penn remains in Oskaloosa next Wednesday to host #4 seed Benedictine in the semifinals at 6 p.m.