The Aquinas men's lacrosse team notched 12 first-half goals en route to a dominating 21-6 victory over visiting Taylor on Wednesday afternoon (Apr. 7) at the AQ Athletic Field. With six different goal scorers, the Saints went ahead 12-3 at halftime and cruised to the home victory.
With the win, Aquinas – listed as Receiving Votes in the latest NAIA Top-25 poll released earlier on Wednesday – moves to 2-3 overall and evens its WHAC record at 2-2 on the year. Taylor, a WHAC member for men's lacrosse, drops to 5-7 on the season and 0-5 in conference action.
AQ, which has scored 21 goals in both victories this season, had six different players tally goals in Wednesday's win.
Zachary Sweet led all players with a career-high eight goals, while
Mitch Haggart added six goals and three assists for the Saints, which outshot Taylor by an overwhelming 66-24 margin.
Hunter Roberts totaled three goals and an assist, while Matt Contrad notched two goals, two assists, and three ground balls.
Joey Fitzgerald and
Jon Jardis each handed out three assists and Kevin Lahaie posted a pair of helpers.
Kyle Gauthier and Fitzgerald also found the back of the net for AQ.
The Saints scored the first four goals, with Roberts opening the game with a goal less than five minutes in and Sweet tallying the next three goals in a 1:23 span. Taylor stopped the run with back-to-back goals, but Sweet, Roberts, and Haggart all scored for a 7-2 AQ lead.
Aquinas scored the final five goals of the first half, with Haggart and Sweet each scoring twice during the 5-0 run and Gauthier netting his goal to make it a 12-3 lead at the half. Haggart posted three second-half goals and Sweet added a pair in the fourth quarter.
While Taylor finished with a 16-15 advantage in faceoffs, the Saints held a wide 45-25 edge in ground balls. Aquinas forced the Trojans into 33 turnovers;
Matt Wagner,
Jake Lee,
Sam Asare-Konadu,
Cam Gunn, and
Grant Caswell all caused two turnovers each. Wagner picked up five groundballs, as did
Aidan Donnelly.
Clayton Boerigter made four saves in the first half, while
Jack Kordek played the final 30 minutes and stopped five shots.
The Saints are back home on Saturday (Apr. 10), when Aquinas hosts Lourdes at noon at the AQ Athletic Field.
