Brown’s Career-Night Helps Men’s Lacrosse Outlast Elements, Randolph
Quakers maneuver around weather delays to rack up season-highs virtually across the board
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications at Guilford College
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Dodging the rain drops and the lightning bolts, it took nearly three and a half hours for Guilford College men’s lacrosse’s contest to unfold at Appenzeller Field on Wednesday night, but the results were well worth the disruptions as the Quakers accumulated a season-high in most major offensive categories en route to a 20-3 rout of Randolph College in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play.
With the win, GC improves to 5-5 overall and 2-1 against ODAC opponents. The WildCats, meanwhile, fall to 3-6, 1-2 against conference competition.
As a team, Guilford posted season-bests in points with 32, goals with 20, assists with 12, shots with 65, shots on goal with 34, and ground balls with 34.
Darius Safavi-Abbassi (Culver City, Calif.) was lightly contested but strong in net for the Quakers as he improved to 5-4 after making three saves against two goals allowed in the first half of action. Lucas Satterwhite (Oxford, N.C.) saw good run in the second half of play allowing one goal against four saves. Adam Ullfers was under duress all night falling to 2-6 after allowing 20 goals against 14 saves.
Gavin Brown (Charleston, S.C.) was the offensive catalyst for Guilford in this one, matching his career-high with nine points including a new high-water-mark with six goals scored while he assisted on three others. Gabe Alvarez (Cary, N.C.) pilled up a quartet of tallies while Dirk Meinhart (Garfield, Ky.) had two goals and an assist. Leyton Brightly, Ethan Caldwell, and Chase Callan each scored once for the guests.
Additionally, Jax Atkins (Mechanicsville, N.C.) went 16-for-23 in the faceoff circle with eight ground balls while Drew Sizemore (Greensboro, N.C.) and Ezekiel Gravley (Greensboro, N.C.) had two and three caused turnovers respectively with five ground balls each.
Guilford came out firing against the WildCats, Meinhart opening the scoring in less than sixty seconds as Sizemore found him for a quick strike. Just two minutes later, the Quakers had a scoring spurt with Brown finding the back of the net with 12:07 remaining and Meinhart netting his second of the contest, this time off an assist by Cole Plaster (Culpeper, Va.) running the score up to 3-0 just over three minutes in. Halfway through the frame, Meinhart found himself on the distributing end, setting up Brown’s second tally. Seth Woods (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) scored precisely 60 seconds later before Brown’s third goal in the first stanza made the score 6-0 good guys after one period of play.
Brown piled up two more early in the second quarter, the first from Woods just a couple of ticks under the 13-minute mark and the second off an Aimery Workman (High Point, N.C.) feed at 10:17. Brown then contributed the helper on an Alvarez score 13 seconds later before the weather began to cause some disruptions. The first lightning delay occurred at the 9:21 mark and after warming back up, 100 seconds elapsed before another strike occurred forcing it into another stoppage.
Out of the second lightning delay, the goals came in at lightning speed. Caldwell got the guests on the board before Andrew Burch (Cary, N.C.) and Alvarez scored within six seconds of each other, and within 20 seconds of Caldwell’s tally. Beginning at the 2:21 mark, the Quakers fired home four more tallies, two more from Alvarez, Brown’s sixth, and Tanner Glasgow’s (Greensboro, N.C.) first of the season, all within 60 seconds. Callan got one back for the WildCats, but the home team led 15-2 entering the abbreviated halftime.
GC outshot Randolph 39-9 in the half while forcing 18 turnovers as they ran up their huge advantage.
By comparison, the second half was mellow as both squads emptied their bench. Guilford saw the first three career goals by Kenneth Crowley (Raleigh, N.C.) and the first two from Sam Royal (Mebane, N.C.) while Brightly got his score, as the final tallies came to 20-3.
The Quakers make a trip up to Bridgewater to clash with the Eagles on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1:00 PM.
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