BYU lacrosse defeated University of New Hampshire 16-9 in a hard fought game on Saturday afternoon.
BYU capitalized off of two forced turnovers to get a quick 2-0 lead in the first quarter. BYU’s Andrew Bertha followed with another goal shortly after. New Hampshire turned the pressure on by answering the three goals to bring the game to a tie. With an exchange of possessions, BYU scored one last goal to end the first quarter 4-3.
The Cougars began the second quarter with one man up after a penalty was called in the last quarter. They took advantage of the penalty and quickly scored to bring the score up 5-3. The quarter continued with five minutes of turnovers and messy play from both teams. UNH capitalized off a turnover to score. They followed with two more goals to put them in the lead at halftime 6-5.
“We had a great start to the game,” said defenseman Harrison Wardle. “But they really answered back so we didn’t carry that momentum through. Defensively, we let in a lot of goals in the first half.”
New Hampshire scored first in the third quarter to increase their lead by two. With a series of goals by Winston Farley and Jack Fabrizio the Cougars put themselves back in the lead 9-7. The two teams exchanged goals throughout the remainder of the third quarter but BYU maintained their two goal lead 11-9.
“Once we settled in our offense and stuck some shots and got some confidence, the game was more in our hands than theirs,” Fabrizio said.
The fourth quarter was met with tough defense from the Cougars to prevent New Hampshire from scoring. A key penalty midway through the quarter resulted in BYU going man-up five on three for three minutes. BYU capitalized on this advantage to rack up five more goals. The final score was 16-9.
“It’s a great win, we showed a lot of resilience,” Wardle said. “We were playing from behind and in hard circumstances. (The defense) was able to cut down shots allowed in the second half and the offense was able to take care of the ball.”
Head coach Matt Schneck said his team knew how tough New Hampshire would play.
“We knew that New Hampshire was going to be tough but we didn’t know what to expect,” Schneck said. “They kept coming back and they kept fighting this whole game. Overall we’re very happy.
BYU will next face defending national champions Grand Canyon Saturday, March 25 at home.
