GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Eleven Grove City College men's lacrosse players scored goals in the first half Wednesday afternoon as the host Wolverines rolled to an 18-3 win over Albion (12-9) at Robert E. Thorn Field in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
Grove City (14-7) advances to play at No. 4 Christopher Newport in the second round Saturday at 12 p.m. in Newport News, Va.
Grove City led 5-1 after one quarter and pushed the lead to 11-2 by halftime as 11 men each scored once in the first 30 minutes.
Senior midfielder
Alec Jones (Chesterfield, N.J./Notre Dame) helped pace Grove City by scoring a season-high three goals. Graduate student midfielder
Luke Jayne (Vero Beach, Fla./Saint Edward's) scored twice, as did sophomores
Sawyer Strong (Westfield, Ind./Westfield),
Tyson Bui (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton) and
Evan Curry (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei).
Bui and Jayne both added assists to finish with three-point afternoons. Senior attack
Matt Blythe (Mendon, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) also recorded three points with a goal and two assists. Grove City also received goals from senior attack
Zachary Hougan (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro), senior midfielder
Jason Muench (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park), junior attack
Rigdon Greene (Marietta, Ga./Pope), junior attack
Stewart McClain (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg), sophomore attack
Davis Schneider (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton Academy) and sophomore midfielder
Logan Fox (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Christian).
Senior midfielder
Trey Zabroski (Mountain Top, Pa./Crestwood) recorded a pair of assists. Junior attack
Mac Faircloth (Greensboro, N.C./Page), junior midfielder
Boden Davidson (Scottsdale, Ariz./Scottsdale Christian) and junior defender
Sam Stevenson (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) each assisted one goal.
Grove City outshot the Britons, 57-32, including a 34-13 margin in shots on goal. Grove City committed 20 turnovers while Albion had 23 turnovers.
Zabroski caused three turnovers and sophomore midfielder
Joshua McDermott (San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Santa Margarita) caused two turnovers. Zabroski also led the Wolverines by picking up six ground balls. Junior defender
Andrew Glasgow (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) and junior faceoff specialist
Colton Lehberg (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif./Santa Fe Christian) both had five ground balls. Stevenson secured four ground balls.
Graduate student
Luke Rios (Centennial, Colo./Cherry Creek) won 10 of his 11 faceoffs. Lehberg won 7 of 11 faceoffs and Glasgow went 3-0 in faceoffs.
Graduate student goalie
Danny Stone (Chantilly, Va./Flint Hill) made nine saves in 45 minutes of action to earn the victory. Junior
Tyler Gladstone (Marriottsville, Md./Marriotts Ridge) made one save while blanking Albion in the fourth quarter.
Grove City played all 32 active men in the game. Wednesday's game marked the first-ever home NCAA Tournament game for the Wolverines. It represented the first NCAA Tournament event in any sport played on campus since November 1985, when the Grove City women's volleyball team hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Division III Tournament that season.
Saturday's game will be the Wolverines' second trip this year to Christopher Newport. The Captains edged visiting Grove City in double overtime March 1, 14-13.
The Grove City-Christopher Newport winner will play either Stevenson or Lynchburg. Those two squads will play Saturday at 3 p.m. in Newport News.