Two goals in the final 13 seconds of the first period and three goals in a 24-second span midway through the second period helped University of Mount Olive build a 10-goal halftime lead and the Trojans went on to defeat Lees-McRae College 19-4 in Conference Carolinas men's lacrosse Saturday at Amon Field. The contest was Mount Olive's conference opener and the win extended the Trojans' winning streak to six.
Mount Olive (8-1 overall, 1-0 Conference Carolinas) was already up 3-0 when Matt Shields scored off a pass from Ryan Morris with 13 seconds left in the first period. After a faceoff win by James DiMartino, Matt Shields found Dan Shields for a goal with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Trojans a 5-0 lead at the end of one period.
The score was the same until Dan Shields' second goal of the game started Mount Olive's three-goal spurt with 9:07 left in the second period. Sean Shewey followed 16 seconds later with a goal on a running backhanded shot behind the back of his neck after a pass from Brett Kingston, who followed with goal of his own just eight seconds later to extend the Trojans' lead to 8-0 with 8:43 left before halftime.
Lees-McRae (0-8, 0-2) got on the scoreboard with 7:04 remaining on a goal by Kyle Judge. Mount Olive scored a pair of man-up goals in the final four minutes and added an even-strength goal to take an 11-1 halftime lead.
With another contest scheduled 24 hours later, Mount Olive rested most of its starters after halftime as eight different Trojans scored in the second half. Lees-McRae scored three of its goals in the final period.
Dan Shields and Matt Shields led Mount Olive with three goals apiece. Starting goalkeeper Ross Bowman played the first half and recorded five of his six saves in the first period. Dorian Gabrek had three saves in the second half.
Mike Gregory played all 60 minutes in goal for Lees-McRae and finished with nine saves.
Mount Olive concludes its five-game homestand and plays its third contest in five days as the Trojans play host to Florida Tech in a non-conference match. Face off is 2 p.m. at Amon Field.