The Beloit College men's lacrosse team picked up its first win of the season with a 20-10 rout of Dubuque Wednesday afternoon at Mercyhealth Sportscore Two in Loves Park, Illinois.
There was no shortage of offense in the contest as the teams combined for 14 goals in the first 15 minutes of the game.
The Spartans' Michael Jango found a gap in the Buccaneers' defense twice less than three minutes into the game to give Dubuque a 2-0 lead.
Just ten seconds after UD's second goal, Mark Gannon found Michael Boyland who zipped one past the keeper to cut the lead in half 2-1. The Spartans responded with two more goals before Andrei Prikhodko added another tally for Beloit on an unassisted goal at the 9:59 mark.
Dubuque extended their lead to three, 5-2, less than 30 seconds later before it became the Mark Gannon show. Gannon scored three consecutive unassisted goals in just over two minutes to knot the game 5-5 at the 7:22 mark.
The Spartans struck again to make it 6-5 when the Bucs' offense exploded for eight consecutive goals crossing over into the second period. Prikhodko notched his second goal of the game to open the streak. Boyland scored the next two, the second off an assist from Adam Heckman. Heckman continued to set up his teammates finding Gannon for two man-up goals. Ezra Rogers and Steven Soli got in on the action with Soli setting up Rogers on the score. Gannon added another in the scoring column and registered the assist on another Rogers man-up score all before the half to give Beloit a 13-6 lead at intermission.
Rogers and Soli teamed up again to open scoring in the third with a goal at 10:48 to make it 14-6. The teams traded goals over the next three minutes when Rogers and Soli connected for a goal at the 4:39 mark to make it 19-9 Beloit. Rogers would strike again, this time off an assist from Heckman to wrap up the scoring with just under two minutes left in the game.
Beloit outshot the Spartans 49-38 and held the advantage in faceoffs 18-15. The Bucs took advantage of man-up opportunities on three of four occasions while the defense held Dubuque to a 1-5 conversion rate.
Gannon led the Bucs' offense with eight goals, the second-most in a game in program history. He added three assists for 11 points in the contest, also the second-most in a game in Beloit history and the most by a Buccaneer since 2013.
Rogers tallied five goals on eight shots while Prikhodko and Boyland each beat the goalie three times. Heckman dished out four assists and Soli added three in the game. Keeler Tardiff was the most active on loose balls tallying 11 ground balls, tied for the fifth-most in program history. Luke Thomson added seven.
Up Next: The Bucs head to Michigan to take on Alma College Tuesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. before returning to Beloit for their home opener against Concordia Wisconsin Saturday, March 16 at 1 p.m.
