Cincinnati, Ohio - On Thursday April 6th you Mount St. Joseph Men's lacrosse program hosted their second straight HCLC game as they would take on the Quakers of Earlham College. The Mount would strike first in the matchup and never look back as they would earn a wire to wire win for their first victory of the season.
TJ Ahrens would take the opening faceoff and continue to dominate like he has done all season. After picking up the ground ball Ahrens would quickly find a Lions attacker to get them into their offensive set. Two minutes into the first period Lions attack Mason Meilinger put the Lions on the scoreboard first with a goal to the top right corner. In the following faceoff, Ahrens would win again as that resulted in a shot just wide of the net by the Lions. On the defensive end, Austin Combs, Jacob Walters, and Dareon McGrone would force three straight turnovers on the following Earlham possessions which led to Jake Cotsonas scoring his first goal of the matchup and his first Lions goal of his career. With a 2-0 advantage, the Lions offense would continue to spread around the ball as the duo of Dareon McGrone and Nathaniel Bird would find the back of the net to give the Mount a 4-0 lead with 5 minutes remaining in the first. Meilinger and Cotsonas would continue the Lions 4-0 scoring run with both earning their second goals of the night to bring the score to 6-0. With the final two minutes sitting on the clock, Earlham would not go away easily after stealing a pair of goals late and have the scoring sitting at 6-2 after one period.
In the second quarter, TJ Ahrens earned a faceoff win to gain possession for the Mount. Both teams would stand strong defensively as no team would score and only one shot was taken in the first 4 minutes. With just under 11 minutes to play in the 2nd, Earlham would end the drought with a goal making it a 6-3 game. Meilinger picked up the ground ball after the faceoff win for the Lions and took the ball coast to coast to pick up a first half hat-trick. Earlham would earn their second faceoff win of the night but the momentum was quickly shifted with Jake Cotsonas forcing a turnover then later picking up a ground ball after a saved shot by the Quakers keeper and finding the back of the net himself to earn his third goal of the night. With the Lions leading 8-3 with 7 minutes remaining the dynamic duo of Meilinger and Cotsonas continued to shine with another goal by each of them to take a 10-3 lead into the break.
To start the second half, it took the Lions only 10 seconds to add another tally into the scoring column by Mason Meilinger. Then following an Earlham score, Meilinger forced a turnover and scored his 6th goal of the contest to give the Lions a 12-4 lead. Earlham would find an answer for the Lions stellar defense as they scored 4 goals in the next three minutes of play to bring the deficit down to 4. With Earlham making a save and taking the ball to the other end, Lions Goalkeeper Nicholas Jackson made a fantastic save off of a breakaway goal opportunity and the ground ball was picked up by Austin Combs. Combs would see a wide lane and take the ball all the way to the other end and score a goal for his first on the season. With Earlham gaining momentum late, Jackson was faced with 6 shots in the final 3 minutes and he would save two of them to keep the lead at 13-9 heading to the final 15 minutes.
The Lions and the Quakers would battle it out for the remaining time as Earlham struck first making it a 3 score game early in the 4th. The Lions leading assist man on the afternoon added two very pivotal ones late in the 4th as Nathaniel Bird assisted both Cotsonas and McGrone to build the lead back up to five. Mason Meilinger would put the nail in the coffin as he added his 7th goal of the game with just under 2:30 to play to give the Lions a 16-12 victory over the Quakers of Earlham College.
Mason Meilinger shined in tonight's performance with 7 goals and an assist. Jake Cotsonas had a career day for the Mount with 5 goals, 7 ground balls, and an assist. In the goal, Nicholas Jackson earned his first victory of the season by saving 11 shots on the night.
The Mount will be back in action Tuesday April 11th as they host the Hanover Panthers at 7:00 PM and look to climb back up the HCLC standings.
