• Junior Tim Troutner Jr. tied his season high with 16 saves on the day including four in the closing minutes to secure the victory.
• Senior Terrell Sands led a disruptive defensive effort with a career-high four caused turnovers as HPU forced 11 JU miscues.
• Freshman Koby Russell recorded the first hat trick of his career with three goals to lead the offense.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Led by a stellar defensive effort in the closing minutes, the High Point University men’s lacrosse team held on for a hard-fought 11-9 victory over Jacksonville on Saturday at Vert Stadium.
The Panthers (2-7, 2-1) scored their 11th and final goal with 12:48 left as junior Tim Troutner Jr. made a handful of stops in the fourth period to hold off the Dolphins (4-5, 2-1). HPU jumped out to a 3-0 lead and only let JU pull within one goal once at 4-3 while earning a key Southern Conference victory.
“I thought we had a good overall team effort today against an elite-level face-off guy, a really good goalie and a well-coached team,” head coach Jon Torpey said. “There were a couple of runs both ways and it’s a great way to earn our first tight win of the season. I thought the foundation of our close-defense performance started on Monday because the guys really took the scout to heart. I thought six-on-six-wise we executed well and when we didn’t Timmy was there to bail us out.”
Troutner locked down the cage tying his season high with 16 saves while causing a turnover, picking up five ground balls and assisting on HPU’s final goal. Likewise, senior Terrell Sands had a career day forcing four caused turnovers while earning four ground balls.
Offensively, freshman Asher Nolting led the way with a goal and four assists while freshman Koby Russell notched the first hat trick of his career with three goals. Meanwhile, senior Peyton Garrett posted his first multi-goal game of the year with two tallies.
Leading the team in ground balls, senior Connor Robinson grabbed six and scored his 26th goal of the season. Fellow Canadians senior Chris Young and graduate student Adam Dickson both scored on the afternoon.
As the High Point defense forced 11 turnovers, junior Joel Schwarz notched two and sophomore Nick Walsh caused one and picked up four ground balls. Overall, the Panthers earned a 32-28 margin on the ground as both teams went 1-4 in EMOs.
As the face-off ‘X’ both sophomore Davis Sampere and junior Brandon Savoie won four apiece as HPU went 8-of-22 on the day.
Rounding out the scoring, freshman Taylor Acra and sophomore Dalton Sulver both scored goals on the day.
Robinon, Nolting and Sulver all scored in the first four minutes to spot High Point a 3-0 lead. After Jacksonville got on the board at the 9:42 mark, Garrett provided an answer give HPU a 4-1 edge with 6:20 left in the first.
The Dolphins, though, fought back pulling within one before Young, Dickson, Russell and Garrett all scored during a 4-0 run to up the lead to 8-3. However, JU netted the next two goals to enter halftime down by three, 8-5.
Russell upped the lead to four, 9-5, with the first goal of the second half. But again JU battled back scoring two straight to trail 9-7 with 6:31 left in the third. Neither team scored over the next four minutes until Russell scored again allowing HPU to reclaim a 10-7 edge.
At the start of the fourth, Acra scored to give the Panthers an 11-7 margin with 12:49 to play. Despite two goals and several other clean looks on Troutner, the Dolphins couldn’t cut the deficit lower than two as High Point held on for the win.
The Purple & White return to the road on Saturday, April 7 when they travel to Furman for an opening face-off at noon.