Gents First Home Game
This past weekend on Saturday, February 11th, the Gents Lacrosse team played Cornell College, who are from Mount Vernon, Iowa. This was the Gents' second game of the season, the first being in Arkansas against Hendrix College, with the Gents losing a terrible 22-3 the Wednesday before. After that game, the guys picked their heads up and moved on to prepare for Cornell. When the first whistle blew for the first quarter, Seven Davillier won the opening face-off beginning the match with the Gents going straight at Cornell’s defense. Within the first few minutes, the Gents led the game 3-0, with John Mark Waniewski scoring all three of their goals. This did not last long because Cornell finally woke up and brought the score to 3-1. After their first goal, Cornell rode their momentum through the second half bringing the score to 7-5, with G’Colby Spivey and Mark Temple also scoring in the first half. Number five on Cornell was the leading cause of Cornell’s change in score. The Gents' defense just could not keep him locked down. Also, on the defensive side, the Gents had multiple bad clears from the defense to the offense, which gave Cornell the run of the middle.
After halftime, the gents really started to lose the little momentum they had left. While Cornell was not only bullying them off the ball, there were many spilled balls and a few intercepted passes. Starting the second half for the Gents, Jace Turner was in goal, but he got hurt, forcing starting goalkeeper Alex Davis to come back in and finish the match. In the second half, John Mark scored again, earning two more goals for the Gents, with G’Colby scoring one more after to bring the Gents to three goals. There were assists from Liam Johns and Dominic Ogier. The lead only grew throughout the quarters going from 7-5 at halftime to the final result being 12-8. Although face-off did well, one of the issues that resulted in the Gents losing was almost no one could recover the ball to maintain possession. Although the defense had a relatively good game, number five for Cornell had their numbers scoring five goals total with two assists. On the offensive side, not only were they not able to possess the ball, but many of them had multiple turnovers giving the ball right back to Cornell to attack the Gents' defense on a fast break which the Gents were not always ready or equipped for. When the Gents had a chance on goal, many of them shot the ball low, which the Cornell goalkeeper saved the majority of the time.
Although there were many upsets during the game, the Gents are ready to put this game behind them and continue their season. Some of our Gents players were named “Players to Watch'' including G’Colby Spivey, Mark Temple, Matthew Lulich, Ethan Little, and John Mark Waniewski. Their next game will be Huntingdon College on the 24th, and the next home game is on March 1st against Hanover College.
