Mercer University
High Point
Men's Lacrosse Falls to High Point in SoCon Semifinal
4/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
RICHMOND, Va. – The Mercer men's lacrosse team outshot High Point 36-23, but found itself eliminated from the Southern Conference Tournament in a 7-6 semifinal loss to High Point on Thursday night at Robins Stadium.
Mercer finished its season at 5-8 while High Point moved to 9-6 and is set to play Richmond in Saturday's league championship game.
Freshman Bryan Gibson led the way with a pair of goals, while senior Tim Geran, junior Chris Baxa, junior Ben LeSane and sophomore Chris Rahill all scored once.
A see-saw battle saw the score knotted at 6-6 with less than five minutes to play, but High Point's Michael Leclair scored the go-ahead goal with 4:11 remaining.
Geran scored the game's first goal and the Bears led 2-1 late in the first quarter before High Point began a streak of three-straight goals to assume control. Mercer tied the game twice more at 5-5 and 6-6 before Leclair's tally put the Panthers ahead for good.
The Bears finished 16-of-17 in clear attempts and senior Justin Evans won 9-of-15 faceoffs. Junior goalie Mike Nugent made seven saves in 60 minutes of work between the pipes.
After Leclair's go-ahead goal, Mercer put three shots on goal inside the final three minutes. The Bears had the ball last, but a pair of shots in the final 23 seconds both came up empty before time expired.
Mercer won the battle of ground balls, 28-21 and forced High Point into 11 turnovers. William Deines, Rahill, Justin Wood, Dustin White, Patrick de Hueck and Jack Margiotta were all credited with caused turnovers.
