HICKORY, N.C. -- Few men's lacrosse matchups have meant more over the past couple seasons than the rivalry between Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate and tomorrow night's matchup is no different. The two squads meet in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament for the fourth straight time. This year, the matchup takes place in the semifinal round as both teams enter ranked in the top 10 in the nation. The eighth-ranked Bears handed Wingate a 10-5 defeat on April 13 but the No. 9 Bulldogs will look for revenge on LR's home turf tomorrow night.
On top of bragging rights and a chance to play for a SAC title on the line, a resume-boosting win for the NCAA Tournament goes to the victor on Friday. The Bears entered the week No. 5 in the South Region while the Bulldogs came in at No. 6 with six squads making the NCAA Tournament. This will be the seventh game LR will play against a nationally-ranked opponent and LR is 3-3 in their first six.
In the matchup over two weeks ago, the Bears stifled Wingate's high-powered offense by allowing the Bulldogs a season-low five goals. Prior to that, Wingate hadn't scored less than 11 in a game all season and the five goals ties the least scored by any Wingate team against LR in matchup history. LR allowed just two second half goals to Wingate who ranked No. 6 in the nation in scoring heading into that contest.
Toron Eccleston and
Tommy Aguilar each had three goals and an assist in the win and
Joe Venazio had a goal and a pair of assists. LR held SAC Player of the Year Willie Grieco to just one goal and the only game all season that Grieco was held without an assist.
LR is getting hot at the right time and enters play winners of eight straight games. LRs only three losses this season have come against teams ranked Nos. 1-3 in the South Region rankings and the Bears have one of the toughest schedules played in the nation. However, the Bears haven't had a setback since an ugly loss at Limestone on March 12, thanks in large part to a tough defense. The Bears have allowed just 16 goals in the past four games and only two opponents have reached double digits in scoring in LRs eight game winning streak. Much of the defense is due to first team All-Conference player
Victor Powell along with Second Team All-SAC goalie
Noah Johnson. LR has also benefited from grad-student transfer
James Brugger who earned Third Team All-Conference honors and strong defensive play from
Joey Masson along with First Team All-Conference short stick defensive midfielder
Mitchell Linklater.
Colten McCracken,
Christian Starcke and
Nate Ashley are also strong on the defensive end for the Bears.
On the offensive end, LR has a balanced attack with seven players scoring 10 ore more goals. Torron Eccleston is the leader and was a First Team All-Conference selection thanks to a team-high 35 goals and 47 points and Second Team selection
Myles Moffat has 20 points and 19 goals and topped 200 career points this season.
Joe Venazio (24g, 14a),
Tommy Aguilar (19g, 7a),
Evan Voss (16g, 18a),
Will Canata (16g, 12a) and
Bryce Reece (11g, 9a) all have at least 10 goals on the year for the Bears.
Wingate looks to erase the memory of the April 13 loss and are coming off a thrashing of Catawba in the SAC Quarterfinals. The Bulldogs have four high-powered scorers in Grieco (40g, 51a), Bobby Padden (42g, 32a), Danny Riley (35g, 11a) and Adam Vodovnik (36g, 9a) and three other players with double-digit goals. Grieco, Padden and Riley were all First Team All-Conference selections but the Bulldogs only had two defensive players named All-SAC in Peyton Farley and AJ Lohmuller. However, Wingate only allowed 125 goals in 15 games (8.3 per game) which is the third-best in the conference.
This will be the 16th round of the LR/Wingate rivalry with the Bears holding a 9-6 edge including three straight victories. After losing back-to-back SAC Tournament games to Wingate in 2018 and 2019, the Bears have rebounded to win two straight postseason games against the Bulldogs including last year's SAC Tournament Championship game and the South Regional Championship in the NCAA Tournament.
The winner of this game takes on the winner of Limestone vs. Queens. The championship will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Moretz Stadium.
