Men's Lacrosse | 3/4/2014 5:52:00 PM

Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Berry College men's lacrosse  team raced out to 9-2 halftime lead en route to an 18-5 win over Methodist on Tuesday afternoon at Monarch Stadium.
 
The Vikings (3-1) scored the first four goals of the contest, including back-to-back tallies by Bryan Byers, to take a 4-0 lead by the 4:49 mark of the first quarter. Chris Lombardi got the Monarchs (1-3) on the board with an unassisted tally at 3:04 to make it a 4-1 game.
 
In the second quarter, Michael Harper and Cory Hall scored to give BC a 6-1 advantage with 10:09 on the clock. At the 8:32 mark, Jake Smerka took a pass from Trevor Dickinson and beat Jordan Boreman to pull MU within four goals (6-2), but the Vikings closed out the half with three more scores, including consecutive goals by Hall, for a 9-2 lead at intermission.
 
Berry continued to pull away from Methodist, netting the first three goals of the third quarter to take a 12-2 lead with 10:39 to play. Aaron Ward's unassisted goal at the 9:23 cut the MU deficit to single digits (12-3), but four more goals from Berry gave the Vikings a 16-3 lead by the 10:08 mark of the fourth quarter and they coasted to the win.
 
Jordan Boreman picked up the win for Berry, allowing three goals and making seven saves in 42:44. Nick Voso played the final 17:16, allowing two goals and making three saves. Travis Rice took the loss for MU, he allowed nine goals and did not make a save playing the opening 30 minutes. Carl Leibrandt played the final 30 minutes and allowed nine goals while making four saves.
 
For the game, both teams picked up 28 groundballs, but Berry held the edge in faceoff wins (15-12), and converted 18-of-21 clear opportunities to just 12-of-20 for the Monarchs.
 
In addition to Smerka's goal, Chris Lombardi and Ward each scored twice for the Monarchs and Justin Layden had an assist. Daniel Richards and Justin Layden each picked up a team-best three groundballs, and Justin Layden, Trent Diaz and Daniel Richards all forced a pair of turnovers. Jordan DeSalvo won 6-of-10 faceoffs and Hayden Barzditis was 5-of-10 in the faceoff X.
 
For Berry, Christian Akers and Hall each had three goals. Hall also picked up one assist. Jack Wilson scored twice and added an assist, and Nat Morey handed out a pair of assists to go with one goal. Akers also posted a team-best three groundballs. Cody Sorrells was 7-of-12 on faceoffs.
 
Methodist will now take on Oglethorpe on Thursday at 12:00 pm.