High Point, N.C. – The High Point University men's lacrosse team welcomed VMI to Vert Stadium on Friday for the first night game of the season. Dominating through the full 60 minutes of action, HPU continued the win streak against the Keydets with a 19-9 victory, extending the overall record to 10-0 over the last decade.
Multiple program records were broken by none other than the Canadian himself,
Brayden Mayea. After registering a hat trick with four goals in the first quarter, there was nothing stopping the momentum of Mayea's offense. He went on to set a program record with eight goals and 11 points scored in a single game. The previous records were set in 2019 and 2021 by Chris Young with seven goals against UMBC and Asher Nolting with 10 points at VMI.
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 19, VMI 9
Records: High Point (2-1), VMI (1-2)
"Really proud of our team's effort tonight," Head Coach
Jon Torpey said. "VMI is a very well coached team, and you always know you're going to get an unbelievable effort from those guys. We have a quick turnaround and look forward to playing another high-quality opponent on Sunday at Queens."
High Point got off to a hot start in the first quarter, scoring four quick goals before the Keydets tagged one. Mayea dropped in two of the first four followed by goals from
Tommy Meehan and
Jack Van Overbeke.
Mayea closed out the first quarter helping extend HPU's lead to 6-1.
Before ending the first half, High Point netted two more goals. The first was scored at 13:23 on a pass from VanOverbeke to
Nick Rizzo. Three minutes later, VanOverbeke scored his second goal of the night from a pass around the backside of the goal from
Justin Wixted.
Up 8-2 to start the third quarter, the game witnessed seven goals between the two teams in the first 10 minutes of action. Mayea scored three of the seven himself to help extend the Panthers lead to 13-4.
Before the end of the third,
Collin Cooke secured his third goal of the season.
Opening the fourth quarter
Matt Lutzel found the hot hand scoring back-to-back goals to lift High Point to an 11-point advantage, 16-5. The freshman
Ian Cann got in on the fun and netted a goal to make it 17-7, registering his first goal in the purple and white.
Scoring one of the final two goals of the game, VanOverbeke recorded his fifth of the night and a career-high with just under 11 minutes to go.
Saving the best for last, Mayea knocked in the final point of the game for his eighth goal of the night and a program record.
Helping protect the goal, the Panthers witnessed goalie action from
Zack Overend,
Tyler Guzik and
Christopher O'Grady. Overend led the way with six saves to earn the win.
High Point out shot VMI 54-36 with 38 being on goal compared to VMI's 18. HPU also dominated on faceoffs winning 23 to the Keydets nine.
Collin Hoben went 11-16 while
Luca Accardo and
AJ Kiernan went 4-5 and 4-4 respectively.
Next Up:
High Point has a quick turnaround and will head to Charlotte, N.C. for a matchup with Queens University for the second time in program history. The game is set for 12:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
