FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Jake Smerka, Jay Robinson and Aaron Ward each scored five points and the Methodist men's lacrosse team closed out its regular season with a 16-3 win over Piedmont on Sunday afternoon at Monarch Stadium.
 
Smerka scored a game-high four goals and added one assist, Ward had a goal and four assists, and Robinson chipped in two goals and three assists in the resounding win. Ten different Monarchs recorded at least one point and MU (8-8) outscored the Lions (1-11), 6-1, in both the first and third quarters.
 
Kyle Clarkson started the scoring for MU, tallying an unassisted goal at the 10:31 mark to make it 1-0. Piedmont's Taylor Carter quickly answered, scoring off a feed from Branson Mikell to tie the game at 1-1 with 9:12 left in the first quarter. The Green and Gold answered with five straight goals to close out the period, including two goals from Smerka, to make it 6-1 after one period. Methodist took a 7-2 lead into halftime after 1-1 second period.
 
In the third quarter, Ward assisted on the first three goals of the period ad MU's lead grew to 10-2 by the 10:20 mark. Back-to-back man-up goals by Chris Lombardi made it 13-2 with 3:20 left in the quarter. Devon Philips scored a man-up goal for Piedmont with under a minute in the period to make it 13-3.
 
Ward had a goal and an assist in the fourth period as MU tacked on three more goals for the 13-goal margin at the final horn.
 
Jackson Bingham started in goal and played the first 36:26, making three saves and allowing two goals. Griffen Glover closed out the game between the pipes and made four saves with one goal allowed. Dale Morley played all 60 minutes for the Lions and made 19 saves with 16 goals allowed.
 
Methodist launched 52 shots to just 17 for Piedmont, won the faceoff battle, 17-6, and picked up 47 ground balls to 20 for Piedmont. Jordan DeSalvo was 15-for-20 at the face off X for the Monarchs.
 
Clarkson (1g, 2a) and Lombardi (2g, 1a) each had three points to supplement the offense. John Tartline caused five turnovers for MU, and Bingham added four ground balls.
 
Mikell had a pair of assists for the Lions, and Gilbert Ibarra had a caused turnover and four ground balls.
 
Methodist will now play Huntingdon in the SEILC Semifinals on Saturday at 4:00 pm at Ferrum College.