OGLETHORPE, Ga. -- The Methodist men's lacrosse team opened its third season of play with a resounding 20-6 win at Oglethorpe on Saturday afternoon.
 
Kyle Clarkson tallied five goals and one assist, Jake Smerka scored four times and Ty Haith contributed three assists as MU (1-0) used a dominant second half to pull away from the Stormy Petrels (0-3).
 
After taking modest 8-5 lead into halftime, the Monarchs outscored Oglethorpe 8-0 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. MU needed just 23 seconds to begin the third-quarter scoring, as Jordan DeSalvo scored unassisted for a 9-5 lead. Smerka and Clarkson scored at the 12:33 and 12:23 marks, respectively, to make it 11-5.
 
Michael Bradley scored off a feed from Haith at 11:30 to make it 12-5, and four, more goals in the period gave the Monarchs an insurmountable 16-5 lead entering the fourth quarter.
 
The Stormy Petrels scored to open the fourth period, but Aaron Ward quickly got the goal back for the Green and Gold and MU closed the game on a 3-0 run.
 
Methodist dominated the stat sheet, outshooting OC, 63-15, winning the ground ball battle, 56-24, and winning 22-of-28 faceoffs. DeSalvo won 16-of-20 faceoffs, with 13 ground balls, for Methodist and Dakota Chapman was 5-of-7.
 
In addition to Clarkson and Smerka, Trevor Dickinson, Chris Lombardi, Sean Mayefskie and Ward all had multi-goal games. Ward also had five ground balls. Mayefskie, Dan Richards, and Kyle Peacock each had two caused turnovers.
 
In goal, Griffen Glover picked up the win, making one save.
 
John Hood and Nathaniel Gillespie each scored twice for Oglethorpe and Thomas O'Berry had six ground balls. Lane Edwards played all 60 minutes in the cage and made 18 saves in taking the loss.
 
Methodist opens the home portion of its schedule on Sunday when it plays at Berry beginning at 12:00 pm.