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Wheeling Jesuit Lacrosse Falls to Rockhurst

Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Jesuit’s Matt Lee (14) looks to make a play in Sunday’s lacrosse action.

WHEELING — It has been a frustrating start to the season for the Wheeling Jesuit men’s lacrosse team.

For the second game in a row, Wheeling Jesuit (0-2) allowed an opponent to score the final six of the last seven goals of the game and surrendered another fourth quarter lead.

Wheeling Jesuit never trailed on Sunday until the 10:40 mark of the fourth quarter when Rockhurst (4-0) took the lead and did not look back en route to a 12-11 comeback victory at Bishop Schmitt Field.

Jesuit secured a 10-6 edge with 2:27 remaining in the third quarter only to see the Hawks rally for six consecutive goals, leaving the hosts in shock.

“We were in the same position last weekend,” Jesuit coach Landon DelPrince said. “It is tough for our guys but we have to keep battling, keep working and stay mentally tough.”

It was deja vu for the Cardinals, who squandered an 8-5 lead in the season opener to Molloy in an 11-9 setback.

Wheeling Jesuit jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead following goals from Dereck Downs and Matt Lee but could not maintain the lead as Rockhurst’s Michael Beckham and Luke VanOverbeke each whipped shots past the Jesuit goalkeeper to knot the contest at 2-2.

After each team traded goals to make it a 3-3 score, Jesuit rolled off four consecutive goals to take a 7-3 advantage.

The first of the four points came on an unassisted Downs goal, followed by a Downs assist to Michael Stillings who fired the ball past the goalie, then a Jordan Getz unassisted netter and a Luke Gilman goal on an assist from McLean Fitzmartin.

Gilman’s goal came just seconds after Lee delivered a shot off the post.

Back-to-back Hawks goals cut the score to 7-5 but Lee responded with an unassisted goal with just two seconds left in the first half to give the Cardinals an 8-5 edge and the momentum at the break.

“We had long possessions on offense and our defense was playing with control,” DelPrince said. “We had a couple of penalties but we were playing smarter and together as a team. We just got away from that in the fourth quarter.”

Just 32 seconds into the third period, the Hawks received a goal from Aaron Horvat, making the score 8-6.

The Cardinals responded as Downs took things into his own hands with back-to-back goals to put his squad up by a 10-6 count.

Although it looked as if Jesuit was going to cruise to its first win of the season, at that point is where the wheels began to fall off.

The Hawks found the back of the net four times over the next 2:42 to tie the game before Collin Fischer supplied the go-ahead goal and Drake O’Neill added an insurance goal with 3:17 left to play.

Getz added one final goal for the Cards but it was too late.

“We got away from what we were trying to do and what we had practiced,” DelPrince said. “We wanted to control the ball on offense and come the fourth quarter, we got greedy and wanted the glory for ourselves and were not working as a team.

“We definitely turned the ball over too much in the fourth quarter and then we lost our cool and they capitalized on some man advantages and it was tough to comeback.”

Rockhurst out-shot Wheeling Jesuit by a 40-32 count, putting 26 of those 40 shots on the goal.

Jamison Boggio recorded eight saves in net for the Hawks to claim the win, while Jake Lilly collected 14 saves for Wheeling Jesuit.

Rockhurst was led to victory by Grant Vanoverbeke, who recorded a hat-trick, followed by two goals from Luke VanOverbeke, Fischer and Chris Schveninger.

The Cardinals were led by a four-goal performance from Downs, while Lee turned in a pair of goals, as did Getz.

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