FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist men's lacrosse team scored seven goals with a man advantage, all in the second half, in pulling away from Virginia Wesleyan for an 18-13 win on Saturday afternoon at Monarch Stadium.
 
The Monarchs (4-1) and Marlins (1-3) entered halftime deadlocked at 7-7, but MU opened the third period with four straight goals, the last two of the man-up variety, to take an 11-7 lead with 2:30 left in the period. Kyle Clarkson assisted on two of the tallies as four different Monarchs scored.
 
After the Marlins' Eddie Desiderio scored off a Cory Hilliard feed to make it 11-8, Ben Click gave the Monarchs a 12-8 lead entering the fourth quarter when he scored with 0.8 seconds remaining.
 
Between periods, VWC's Josh Davis was flagged for an illegal crosse, a three-minute non-releasable penalty that would give MU a man advantage for the first three minutes of the period. The penalty also resulted in Davis' disqualification as he had previously picked up a two-minute, non-releasable penalty for an illegal body check to the head.
 
During Davis' three-minute absence, the Monarchs piled on four goals to assume a 16-8 lead with 13:04 to play. Jake Smerka scored twice for the Monarchs, and Matt Layden had a goal and an assist.
 
Joe Couture scored a man-down goal for VWC to make it 16-9, but Clarkson tallied his seventh point at 7:39 to make it 17-9, and Chris Lombardi closed out MU's scoring off a feed from Tyson Haith with 5:44 on the clock.
 
Virginia Wesleyan added four goals in the final 3:52 to account for the final score.
 
Clay Stevenson picked up his first collegiate win in the cage, stopping nine shots on the day. Chris McTague took the loss for the Marlins, making eight saves.
 
Shots were relatively ever, 44-41 in favor of MU, and the Marlins forced MU into 25 turnovers while committing just 15. The Monarchs dominated the faceoff X, winning 22 of 32 faceoffs and coming up with 42 ground balls to 25 for the VWC.
 
Clarkson led MU with two goals and five assists, while Layden had three goals and two assists. Lombardi and Andrew Ruskey added three goals and an assist each, and Smerka, who recently became the first Monarchs to eclipse 100 career goals, scored four times. Jordan DeSalvo won 20 of 27 faceoffs with five ground balls, while Jay Robinson scooped up six ground balls.
 
Tyler Conn led the Marlins with two goals and two assists, while Justin Metzger (1g/2a), Matt Baldwin (2g/1a), Joe Couture (3g), Eddie Desiderio (3g) and Cory Hilliard (1g/2a) all had three points.
 
Methodist is back in action on Tuesday when it hosts St. Vincent beginning at 1:00 pm.