NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Coker College men's lacrosse team (4-4) downed the Newberry College Wolves 5-3 in a South Atlantic Conference battle Wednesday (Mar. 21) night. Being held scoreless in two quarters, the Cobras managed to record enough scores to triumph over the Wolves.
Trailing 2-0 after the first quarter of action, the Navy and Gold responded in the second frame of play by tallying three unanswered goals. Coker notched their first of three goals in the quarter when Rylee Marsh fed Matt Murphy for the score. Next, the Cobras took advantage of an extra-man-opportunity when Lucas Hediger ripped a shot past the Newberry goalkeeper off an accurate pass from Denton Wilks. The Cobras wrapped up their dominant second quarter with an unassisted goal from Marsh, and the Navy and Gold took a slim 3-2 lead into halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, Newberry found the back of the cage and evened the score at 4-4 with 11:09 remaining in regulation. However, the Cobras responded three minutes later with an unassisted goal from Ethan Irizarry to retake the lead. The Coker defense stood strong the rest of the way and Irizarry sealed the Cobra victory with an impressive behind-the-back goal with ten seconds remaining.
Irizarry and Marsh led the Coker offensive attack with two points each. Irizarry recorded two goals, while Marsh tallied one goal and one assist. Defensively, Justin Hopkins led the Navy and Gold with a team-best two caused turnovers and five ground balls. In addition, Wilks, DeShaun Ormond, and Charles Stafford scooped up three ground balls each. In between the pipes, Chris Hagy collected six saves.
The Cobras will be back in action this Saturday (Mar. 24) when they travel to SAC foe Mars Hill for a 2 p.m. game.