Dan Lomas Scores Six Goals in HPU Men’s Lacrosse Win Over Michigan

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Freshman Dan Lomas scored six goals to lead the High Point University men’s lacrosse team to 13-10 win over Michigan on Wednesday at Vert Stadium. Sophomore Matt Thistle added three goals and three assists in the win.

“The guys worked really hard in practice this week,” said head coach Jon Torpey. “We challenged the guys to come out and work hard for 60 minutes and they did that tonight. Thistle did an excellent job dodging and quarterbacking the offense and it set Lomas up for some fantastic goals. Defensively, we forced Michigan to make a lot of mistakes in the midfield.”

Redshirt-freshman Mitchell Dupere scored one goal and added three assists for a four-point night. He also picked up four ground balls. Redshirt-freshman Adam Seal scored two goals.

Redshirt-sophomore Austin Geisler made 13 saves for the Panthers while picking up five ground balls.

Mike Hernandez led the Wolverines with four goals and Kyle Jackson added one goal and four assists. Gerald Logan made 16 saves for Michigan.

High Point improves to 2-5 with the win while Michigan drops to 0-5.

The Panthers held Michigan to 14-of-22 on clear attempts and forced the Wolverines to turn the ball over 20 times. Brendan Montrello, Harris Levine and Jeff Hale each had two caused turnovers.

Seal scored the first goal of the game, at 13:43 in the first quarter. Thistle found Seal cutting in front of the goal and the two connected for the game’s first score. Michigan scored the next two goals to take its first lead of the game. Michael Messenger tied the game, 2-2, at 9:58 in the first on a goal assisted by Dylan Bozel. The teams traded two more goals each in the opening quarter to make it a 4-4 tie.

Lomas scored the first of his six goals with 12:29 on the clock in the second quarter. The score was assisted by Thistle. Hernandez and Jackson gave Michigan a 6-5 lead with back-to-back unassisted goals.

Messenger picked up a ground ball at midfield and quickly passed it in to HPU’s offensive zone to Dupere. Dupere found Thistle in front of the net to tie the game 6-6. With 7:19 left in the second quarter. Lomas gave HPU its final lead of the night, 7-6, with 3:55 left in the second quarter.

The Panthers maintained their lead throughout the second half, outscoring the Wolverines 6-4 in the final two quarters.

Geisler made a save on a shot by Jackson with 12:56 on the clock in the third quarter. He passed the ball out to Garrett Swaim who sent a pass all the way down the field to Thistle who scored on a wide-open goal to make it an 8-6 lead.

Lomas gave HPU its biggest lead of the day, 10-7, with a goal at 11:46 in the fourth quarter. Dupere sent the ball in to Lomas right in front of the crease and Lomas scooped the ball in to the goal. Michigan cut the lead to two, 11-9, with six minutes left. Lomas scored two more goals in the final five minutes to secure the win. With 4:45 on the clock Lomas reached behind his body to collect a pass from Messenger and shot the ball one handed past Logan for a goal. His final goal of the day was unassisted.

High Point won 14-of-27 faceoffs with Piluso picking up all 14 wins. He also led the team with eight ground balls.

Messenger finished the day with one goal, one assist and three ground balls.

High Point goes back on the road on March 16 for a 1 p.m. game at UMBC.