Statesmen Power Past Ravens for Trip to Heart Finals

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's lacrosse team overcame a slow start, including dominating the even-numbered quarters, en route to a 23-8 victory over #4 seed Benedictine in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship Semifinals Wednesday.

Top-seeded WPU (13-5) qualified for the Heart's first-ever championship game by outshooting the Ravens (8-7) by a 53-26 margin.  The Statesmen won the faceoff battle 20-15, while forcing the visitors into 28 turnovers (22 for the home squad).

William Penn was also effective in both clearing the ball out of its defensive zone (21-for-23) and preventing Benedictine from doing the same (16-for-26).

With the win, the navy and gold advance to the Championship Finals where they will host #2 seed St. Ambrose Saturday at Statesmen Community Stadium at 2 p.m.

Boston Romero (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management), with an assist from Wyatt Christensen (Fr., Madison, Wis., Biology), opened the scoring for the navy and gold just 49 seconds into the contest.

The Ravens, however, took control with four consecutive goals and forced a Statesmen timeout with 7:55 left in the first period.

Fortunately, the message in the huddle was well-received as William Penn went on a 3-0 run, including goals from Max Taylor (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management), Kenny Bohney (Fr., Moorhead, Minn.), and Christensen.  All three scores were assisted by Breck Putzier (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) to tie the game at 4-4 at the end of the first quarter.

After playing even through the opening 15 minutes, the Statesmen caught fire in the second stanza, scoring eight unanswered goals.  Taylor got things started with help from Putzier, while Romero and Bohney followed with goals.  Putzier then got in on the scoring action himself with an unassisted tally.  Taylor kept the streak going as he beat the BC goalkeeper twice before Bohney and Tim Pennington (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Biology) recorded the final two goals of the period to push the edge to 12-4 at intermission.

Benedictine unfortunately came out of the break with a purpose, posting back-to-back goals, but the rest of the period, and the contest for that matter, belonged to the navy and gold.  WPU responded with two goals from Putzier, while Taylor answered with his fifth goal of the night off a pass by Pennington.

The navy and gold preferred the north end of the field Wednesday.  After scoring eight times on that side of the stadium in the second quarter, WPU, which led 15-7 entering the final period, closed out the victory with a flurry of offensive success on the northern half.  Eli Dillon (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management), Seth Read (So., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology), and Jeff Kohl (Fr., Gilbert, Ariz., Business Management) all got into the goal column in the fourth.

Taylor guided WPU with six goals Wednesday, while Putzier had a part in 13 scores, including four goals and a school-record nine assists.  Putzier broke his own single-game assists record from earlier in the month.

Bohney and Romero each scored three times, while Christensen was a part of seven goals as well (two goals, five assists).

Ryan Swarts (Jr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) finished 15-for-28 in the faceoff circle, while Nick Hajnasiewicz (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Kinesiology) won five of his seven attempts.

Eric Garigan (Jr., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science) recorded three saves in the semifinal victory.