Men’s Lacrosse earns first win of Murphy era at Mars Hill

Mars Hill, N.C. —- The Catawba College men's lacrosse team earned its first win under head coach Mike Murphy on Saturday afternoon, a 16-12 win over Mars Hill in their South Atlantic Conference opener. The Catawba Indians improve to 1-4 overall and 1-0 in the SAC, while the Lions drop to 2-6 on the season and 0-2 in league play.

Frank Cetrone, Matt Mitchell and Jordan Dash led the way offensively for Catawba with three goals apiece. Cetrone piled up four assists and Mitchell added three more. Jackson Braswell and Tyler Wedick were Catawba's other multi-goal scorers. Nick Bitetto won 16 of 24 face-offs and recorded 12 ground balls. James Crighton made 11 saves in goal.

For Mars Hill, Cole Ross and John Hommel recorded three goals each. Catawba out-shot Mars Hill 52-34 and capitalized on four of eight man-up opportunities while only committing one penalty the entire game themselves. 

Catawba opened up a lead early, scoring three of the first four goals as Joey Lindner's goal off a Hunter Clarke assist put the visitors up 3-1 at the 6:17 mark. The teams traded a goal apiece the rest of the opening quarter, as Cetrone found Braswell for a late-period score to put Catawba up 4-2 after 15 minutes.

The Lions responded in the second quarter, scoring back-to-back goals to tie the game at the 6:54 mark. Wedick broke the tie off a Mitchell assist less than a minute later and Mitchell assisted again later in the quarter on a score by Cetrone with under a minute to go in the half. Catawba took a 6-4 lead into the halftime locker room.

Mars Hill cut the deficit in half in the opening minute of the second half, but it was the closest they would get. Catawba responded with seven straight goals in less than eight minutes, turning a slim one-goal lead into a commanding 12-5 advantage at the 5:31 mark after a score from Bakari Neely. The Catawba Indians led 13-6 with 15 minutes to go.

MHU had one last rally in them, scoring five of the first six goals of the final quarter to cut their deficit to 14-11 with seven and a half minutes remaining, but Catawba answered with back-to-back scores to put the game out of reach.

Catawba continues SAC play on Wednesday, hosting 8th-ranked Wingate at 7 p.m.