William Penn Defeats Clarke in Road Contest

Dubuque--On a collision course with the only other unbeaten program in the league, the Statesmen men's lacrosse team cleared one more hurdle with a 29-1 Heart of America Athletic Conference victory over Clarke Saturday.

#5 William Penn (14-1, 4-0 Heart) took care of the Pride (5-6, 1-3 Heart) with a 76-14 advantage in shots and a dominating 26-for-34 showing in faceoffs.  The navy and gold will now host Benedictine (9-4, 4-0 Heart) next Saturday (2 p.m. start) in Oskaloosa for the Heart regular season title.

Paced by three goals each from Kenny Bohney (So., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science) and Breck Putzier (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Exercise Science), the Statesmen raced out to a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes of action.

Bohney continued his great day (seven goals total) with three more tallies in the second as WPU entered halftime with a 16-0 advantage.

Collin Baliva (Sr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering) then got into the action in the third with a pair of goals as the visitors outscored CU 8-1 in the period.

Nate Blasingame (Jr., Portland, Ore., Business Management) scored once and assisted once in the fourth quarter, while Chris Hollenbaugh (Jr., Saugus, Calif., Psychology) beat the Pride goalkeeper twice in the final stanza as well.

A total of 13 Statesmen factored into at least one goal with Bohney recording his seven goals alongside one assist.  Blasingame actually managed the team high in points with nine, doing so with two goals and seven assists.

Putzier was also near the top of the list with eight points (five goals, three assists), while Baliva (two goals, two assists), Wyatt Christensen (So., Madison, Wis., Biology) (three goals, one assist), Cole Huettl (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management) (three goals), and Boston Romero (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) (two goals, one assist) were good for at least three points.

Ryan Swarts (Sr., Boise, Idaho, Industrial Technology) was nearly perfect in the faceoff circle with a 13-for-14 effort.  The visitors also had just 24 turnovers, compared to 39 for Clarke, while finishing a perfect 16-for-16 in clears (CU was 16-for-21).  A 48-21 advantage in ground balls was also procured by the victors with Baliva collecting an impressive 14.

Defensively, Max Standage (So., Gilbert, Ariz., Public Accounting), who scored one goal with one assist, caused five turnovers and Bradley Howell (So., Clearfield, Utah, Psychology) added three more.