Statesmen Lose Heartbreaker to Ravens, Settle for #2 Seed in Heart Tourney

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's lacrosse team had a bad day when it could least afford to as it fell 8-7 on Senior Day to Benedictine in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Saturday.

#5 WPU (14-2, 4-1 Heart) saw its school-record 12-game winning streak snapped, but more importantly, was denied its second regular season league crown in a row.  The loss drops the navy and gold into the second seed for next week's Heart Championship.  William Penn will open up the four-team league tourney next Wednesday by hosting #3 seed St. Ambrose in Oskaloosa at 6 p.m.

In what basically served as the de facto regular season conference title game, the Statesmen were outshot 41-39 and committed 19 turnovers, compared to 14 for the Ravens (10-4, 5-0 Heart).

BC struck first just a few minutes in and then doubled its advantage a bit later.  Fortunately, WPU settled its nerves as Boston Romero (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) scored off a pass from Breck Putzier (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Exercise Science).  The nation's leading scorer, Putzier was hounded all afternoon and unfortunately finished with just two assists.

The score opened the floodgates for the home squad as it recorded four unanswered tallies.  With his team down 2-1 after one period of play, Romero started a strong second quarter for the navy and gold as he scored unassisted.

Kenny Bohney (So., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science) then took over with back-to-back goals; Tim Pennington (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Biology) and Seth Read (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz., Psychology) assisted the offensive winners.

The Ravens finally turned the tide with a goal, but Romero (assist to Putzier) stretched the advantage back to two at 5-3 entering halftime.

The sides exchanged the first two goals of the third period, including Collin Baliva (Sr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering) taking a ground ball in transition and feeding Bohney for an easy score.

Benedictine then got right back into the game, though, with back-to-back tallies, but Romero hit the netting via a pass from Nate Blasingame (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management) to keep WPU in front entering the final stanza.

Unfortunately, the hosts were unable to hang onto the lead as they suffered a rarity in being shut out for an entire quarter.  Conversely, the Ravens tied the score, took the lead, and then held on down the stretch.

William Penn managed 24 shots after halftime, but only came away with two goals in the latter half.

The Statesmen finished 24-for-30 in clear attempts, while BC overcame a 25-for-35 performance in clears.

Romero paced WPU with four goals, while Bohney added three.

Eric Garigan (Grad., Tucson, Ariz., Master's of Organizational Leadership) led the defense with 17 saves, while Noah Braegger (Fr., West Point, Utah, General Accounting) recorded four caused turnovers.  Ryan Swarts (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology), who was 10-for-18 in faceoffs (WPU went 10-for-19 overall), also topped the hosts with five ground balls.

"We were due for an off day," Head Coach Luke Christiansen said.  "Luckily, it came now and not next weekend.  It is now time to prove how bad we really want it."