Men’s LAX pummels WVU

The men’s club lacrosse team’s version of the Backyard Brawl yielded a more common football… The men’s club lacrosse team’s version of the Backyard Brawl yielded a more common football score than the actual football game that took place this past Thanksgiving in which the Panthers were victorious 16-13.

Pitt turned Sunday’s game against the Mountaineers into the Backyard Blowout as they exploded for 21 goals and held WVU to only three points. Twelve Panthers scored in the game.

“We had been working a lot on our shooting in recent practices,” head coach Robbie Heaps said after the game. “It really paid off tonight.”

The Panthers scored on basically every trip down the field in a stretch in the second and third quarters where they went on an 11-goal tear in about a 10-minute span.

It took a while for the Panthers to heat up. After the Panthers scored an early goal to go up 1-0, West Virginia quickly answered to tie the game up. Heaps responded by calling a timeout.

“We needed to get settled down and play our game,” Heaps said. “We were playing down to their level. Once we got that out of our system, we really took it to them.”

The Panthers scored a quick goal after the time out and held on to lead 2-1 after the first quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, the game was still close. Pitt scored two goals before West Virginia could ever get the ball into Pitt’s zone. Trailing 4-1, West Virginia answered to make it 4-2, but it would be the last ball to get past senior goalie and team captain Kyle Balliet until the fourth quarter.

With the strong play of Balliet in goal, and an impressive defensive unit, the Panthers began their scoring barrage.

Freshman Adam McCollister picked up the ball and flew down the left side of the field, beating two West Virginia defenders. From a seemingly impossible angle, McCollister snuck the ball right under the crossbar to beat the goalie for his first of three goals.

That goal was followed up by an even prettier one as freshman Eamonn Brady caught a high pass from senior Warren Maxwell as he was cutting through the Pitt attack zone, and in one swift motion, he tossed the ball from above his head into the back of the net.

Maxwell, one of nine Panther seniors to be honored at halftime, also scored three goals of his own in the victory.

“We’ve had great senior leadership all season,” Heaps said. “If it wasn’t for those guys, we definitely would not have had the success we’ve had this year.”

The Panthers continued to shoot at a high percentage and increased their lead to eight before halftime.

The intermission and senior recognition ceremony did not slow down the Panthers. On their first possession of the half, senior Craig Anderson finished off a goal that was set up by two quick passes from Maxwell and Jason Dawson.

Anderson scored another goal later in the quarter as he was camped out at the far post, and senior Matt Chominksi fired a hard pass across the slot. Wide open, Anderson accepted the pass and put it in to increase Pitt’s lead to 14-2.

The Panthers would get on the board two more times in the third quarter to make the lead 16-2 heading into the final quarter. Pitt outscored the Mountaineers in the third 6-0.

Pitt scored two more goals before West Virginia finally scored again. With the score 18-3, the Panthers were still playing hard.

Senior Matt Stapleton, who normally plays on the defensive end of the field, moved up to play offense and quickly answered the Mountaineer goal. Stapleton fired in a hard shot from the left side that the goalie never saw.

Pitt added two more unanswered goals to increase its lead to 21-3.

The Panthers improved to 7-1 for the season and 4-1 in conference play.

They will be back in action this Friday when they head north to take on the Eagles of Boston College.