ROME, Ga. -- The Methodist men's lacrosse team dropped the second game of its 2016 season, 17-9, at Berry on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Monarchs (1-1) fell behind 11-1 in the second quarter as it struggled to generate offense early on. Berry improved to 1-1 with the win.
 
Jake Emche scored twice and was among six different Vikings to score as Berry took a 7-0 lead on Emche's second goal at t 10:46 mark of the second quarter. Jake Smerka broke MU's drought with an unassisted tally 27 seconds later to make it 7-1.
 
Four more goals by Berry, including two more from Emche, pushed the Viking lead to 11-1 at the 2:08 mark. Smerka scored just before the halftime horn to put the score at 11-2 entering the third quarter.
 
MU opened the third quarter with goals by Jay Robinson, Smerka and Kyle Clarkson to pull within 11-5, but Emche scored as part of a 5-1 run by Berry that carried over into the fourth quarter and gave the host team a 16-6 lead with 11:38 to play.
 
Smerka answered with a pair of man-up goals and Sean Mayefskie added one to put the score at 16-9 before Berry's Thomas Brennan closed the scoring for the Vikings with an unassisted goal with 3:33 to play.
 
Berry took 37 shots while MU took 35, but the Vikings held a 22-16 edge in shots in the first half. Each team had 23 ground balls and MU won 18 faceoffs to 12 for the Vikings. Methodist's defense held the Vikings to just 1-of-8 with a man advantage.
 
Smerka finished with five goals on the day, and Clarkson added a pair of assists to his goal. Jordan DeSalvo won 11-of-16 faceoffs and had six ground balls. Robinson added three ground balls and a caused turnover. Liam Von Hoene played all 60 minutes in goal and made nine saves in taking the loss.
 
Emche led Berry with five goals. Chrisitan Akers (2g, 1a) and Quentin Johnson (1g, 2a) each had three points. Akers had five ground balls and Andrew Elgin had four. Nick Voso started in goal and picked up the win. He made 12 saves 46:29.
 
The Monarchs will host Guilford on Wednesday at 3:30 pm.