Site: Air Force Academy, Colo. (Falcon Stadium)
Score: High Point 13, Air Force 8
Records: High Point (5-5, 4-1), Air Force (3-8, 2-3)
Next HPU Event: Saturday, May 2nd vs Jacksonville (Vert Stadium)
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, COLO — The High Point University men’s lacrosse team scored a big road win over SoCon foe Air Force 13-8. Freshman Brayden Mayea shined for the Purple & White as he scored six goals in the win for The Panthers. The six goals are the most Mayea has scored all season in a single game surpassing his record of five he scored against UNC earlier this season. Asher Nolting led HPU in assists with three on the day as he added a goal for four points in his return to his home state of Colorado.
“Proud of our guys, this is one of the toughest places to win on the road,” Head Coach Jon Torpey said after the win. “I thought they had a resilient effort today on all ends of the ball. I thought the defense played one of their best 60-minute efforts of the season, our offense was fantastic in the second half, and credit to the assistants those guys did a fantastic job of making some adjustments in the second quarter and at halftime. The guys did a fantastic job of executing them.”
The Falcons started the game by scoring first, the Panthers quickly shifted the momentum in a big way as the Panthers took advantage of Air Force’s ten-man ride. With all of the Falcons covering the Panther clear it provided open opportunities downfield. Parker Green found Clayton Krol to his right as the Panthers looked to clear, Krol looked up and saw an open goal and launched the ball 60 yards into the goal for the first goal of the game. Green was credited with the assist to Krol. After an Air Force goal, HPU went on a three-goal run as Sean Coughlin and Mayea scored to put HPU up 3-2 in the first quarter. Grant Ammann saw the same opportunity that Krol did as HPU looked to clear he fired an even deeper shot from 65 yards that went flying into the goal to give High Point a two-goal advantage with 3:03 left to play in the first. Air Force scored two goals in the last three minutes of the quarter to tie the game at four after one.
The second quarter was a complete change in pace as after combining for eight goals in the first quarter the two sides only scored three in the second. Green started to take over for the Panthers in the cage in the second half as he had five saves in the second quarter alone. Mayea scored HPU’s lone goal of the quarter. The Falcons took a 6-5 advantage into the break.
Air Force scored to open the third quarter and jumped out to a two-goal lead. The Panthers immediately answered as Koby Russell scored a goal by driving to the cage and made it a one-goal game. The goal by Russell was huge and shifted the momentum in favor of the Purple & White, Nolting found Mayea who faked several times then finished low to tie the game at seven with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter. Nolting scored his first goal of the game in a huge spot as he scored with three Falcon defenders closing in on him. Nolting’s goal gave HPU the lead 8-7 with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter. The Panthers would go on to lead for the rest of the contest. Mayea added one more before the end of the third quarter to give HPU a 9-7 lead headlining into the fourth quarter.
Mayea scored two more goals in the fourth to pick up his sixth goal of the day leading HPU in scoring. Fellow freshman Jack Vanoverbeke scored the twelfth goal of the day much to the delight of the High Point bench who erupted in excitement after the Van-O goal. Hunter Vines added one more in the last two minutes of the game to give HPU a 13-8 victory in Falcon Stadium 6,621 feet above sea level.
UP NEXT: HPU returns to Vert Stadium to host Jacksonville on Saturday, May 1st at noon.