Freshmen Combine for Nine Goals in Season-Opening Rout of Guilford

The College of Wooster men’s lacrosse team had a pair of six-goal runs en route to a convincing 17-5 season-opening win at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., on Sunday (Feb. 29).

Wooster (1-0) opened the contest with six-straight scores, three via rookie attacker Brendan Hayes, and after the Quakers briefly cut it to a four-point margin (6-2), the Scots reeled off six more in a row to put the non-conference game well out of reach late in the third quarter.

It was a dominating debut for Wooster, which started four first-year players. The Scots outshot Guilford (1-1) by a final count of 57-18, collected a dozen more groundballs (54-42), and won 15 of 25 face-offs.

Individually, Hayes finished with a game-high four goals, while fellow freshman Chris Vaccaro found the back of the net three times. Two other first-years — Ben Abbott and Peter Tumbas — each scored once for the Scots, too.

While the freshmen were the ones finishing scoring opportunities, veteran attackers Shawn Handy and Mike MacMaster helped create them. Handy had four assists to go with two goals for a team-leading six points, while MacMaster doled out three assists.

Rounding out Wooster’s multiple scorers were Steve Burton and Tom Canfield, each of whom tossed in two goals.

Keying the Scots’ scoring runs was face-off specialist Peter Park, who won 14 of the 21 he took, keeping the ball in Wooster’s possession.

Defensively, Courter Shimeall seemed to pick up right where he left off last season, as the sophomore all-conference goalie started, went the first 40 minutes, and made seven of nine save opportunities.

The Quakers’ primary scoring threat was Matt Wagner, who had a hat trick, while two goalkeepers split time and combined for 18 stops.

Next, the Scots will travel to the East coast for four games from March 8-17 during spring break.