PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The High Point University men's lacrosse team took on the tournament host, No. 3 seed Saint Joseph's University on Thursday afternoon in the Atlantic 10 Men's Lacrosse Tournament Semifinals. The Panthers were hot from the start and dominated all four quarters against the Hawks to earn the 14-9 victory for the programs second ever advancement to the A10 Championships.
John Crawley is one of the youngest first-time head coaches in Division I men's lacrosse and is in his first season at the helm for the Panthers in his young career. The last time HPU went to the Championships was during the inaugural 2023 season with an upset over No. 1 Saint Joseph's in the semifinals.
"I'm just really proud of this group," Crawley stated. "It's been a long year. There have been some ups and downs along the way and our seniors and the core of our team stayed committed to the things that we spoke about in the fall and we really saw that today."
Site: Sweeney Field
Score: No. 2 seed High Point 14, No. 3 seed Saint Joseph's 9
Records: High Point (7-8, 3-2), St. Saint Joseph's (9-6, 2-3)
From the jump, High Point brought the grit and energy. The Panthers won in almost every statistical category on both the offensive and defensive ends, beginning with the faceoff at the start of the game.
Luca Accardo set the team up for success by winning 22 of the 27 faceoffs, tying the program record for single-game wins with Davis Sampere (22-27 vs. Richmond in 2019). Along with his faceoff wins, he dominated on ground balls picking up a career-high 16, helping the Panthers lead the game 40-28 as a team. He surpassed Sampere's program record for single-season ground balls with 141 total on the year.
The first goal was scored by the dynamic duo of
Owen Bunten and
Justin Wixted, giving High Point the first goal of the game at the 14:02 mark. Saint Joseph's answered with a quick goal to even the score.
High Point soon went back on top with a goal from
Tommy Meehan at the 11:55 mark which would pave way to the Panthers holding a lead through the remainder of the action.
Colin Cooke joined the excitement and found the back of the net after
Zack Overend protected the Panthers net on the defensive end and passed the ball ahead for a transition clear. Two minutes later, another midfielder,
Ian Cann scored to put HPU up 4-1 in the first with three minutes to go.
In the last 10 seconds of the first quarter, SJU snuck a goal in to keep the game within two, 4-2. The momentum from the last second goal in the first quarter carried over for the Hawks as SJU had one of its best quarters of the game in the second.
After High Point's
Collin Rovere ripped a goal into the net from the back left side, the Hawks set out on a three-goal run to tie the game at five all. HPU won the next faceoff at the three-minute mark with a ground ball pick-up from Cooke who traveled down field to score his second goal of the game. High Point went into the second half leading 6-5.
Coming out in the third quarter, High Point put on a scoring clinic with three straight goals in a span of four minutes. Cooke tagged his third goal of the game for the first hat trick of his career.
Zack Brenfleck, the defensive long pole scored his first career goal after going coast-to-coast without getting stopped.
Ryan Hynes dropped in the third goal to give High Point a 9-5 lead at the 11:12 mark in the third.
Saint Joseph's scored one goal in the third quarter as the Panthers kept the pedal to the medal with two goals in the final two minutes from
Carson Robins and
Matt Lutzel. HPU led 11-6 going into the fourth quarter.
The Hawks made it interesting in the fourth, closing the gap to two at 11-9 with three early goals by the mid-way point of the quarter. The other Brenfleck brother,
Jeb Brenfleck wanted to join in on the action and did at the right time giving High Point some cushion to take some pressure off the defense crew. Brenfleck's goal with just under seven minutes to go in the game gave HPU a 12-9 lead.
In a span of four minutes following Brenfleck's goal, Saint Joseph's took three shots, two that were wide and one that was saved by Overend in an attempt to close the gap. With three minutes remaining in the game, High Point sealed the deal with back-to-back goals, one from Cann who took it from one side of the field to the other to score and another from Bunten who threw in a dart off a pass from Accardo after winning the last faceoff.
The 14-9 advantage was enough to hold off the Hawks in the final three minutes of the game and advance to the Atlantic 10 Championship for the second time in the last three seasons.
Cooke and Bunten led the team with multi-goal games. Bunten tied the single-season program record for most goals by a rookie with 37 goals (
Brayden Mayea, 2021).
UP Next:
High Point will play the No. 1 seed University of Richmond on Saturday, May 3 at 12:00 p.m. on Sweeney Field. This will be the Panthers and Spiders ninth matchup in a postseason tournament setting.
#GoHPU x #A10MLAX
