VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Methodist fell behind 8-1 at halftime en route to dropping a 17-5 decision in men's lacrosse at Virginia Wesleyan on Wednesday evening. 

The Monarchs (1-4) saw the Marlins (3-0) open with four goals in the first period to take an early 4-0 lead. In the second quarter, MU's Chris Lombardi opened the scoring off a feed from Ben Click to make it 4-1, but the Marlins closed the period on a 4-0 run, including two goals from Tyler Conn to take the aforementioned 8-1 lead.

VWC scored to open the third quarter, but the Monarchs quickly answered with a tally from Click to make it 9-2 before Virginia Wesleyan sealed the game with a 5-0 burst to take a commanding 14-2 lead. 

Ty Haith scored a pair of late goals for the Monarchs and Aaron Ward capped the day's scoring off a feed from Jay Robinson with 5:08 left to play.

Methodist was out shot 46-31 and saw the Marlins convert 5-of-9 man-up opportunities. The Monarchs won 16 face offs to VWC's nine.

Jackson Bingham made 15 saves in the cage for the Monarchs in taking the loss. Sean Galloway played the first 50:29 in goal for Virginia Wesleyan and made eight saves against four goals allowed to earn the win.

Lombardi and Click each finished with a goal and an assist and Haith scored twice for MU. Jordan DeSalvo won 16-of-21 face offs and had six ground balls. Robinson and Lombardi each had four ground balls, and Dan Richards caused three turnovers.

Josh Currier led the Marlins with nine points on five goals and four assists. Conn scored three times, as did Andre Brummitt. Conn also had six ground balls, and Ben Fletcher and Galloway each had five.

The Monarchs will play host to Alma on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

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