ALMA, Mich. – The Alma College men's lacrosse team played host to Marian University (Wis.) on Sunday, March 9th, for an afternoon matinee. The Scots led from almost the entirety of the game, defeating the Sabres by a final score of 15-4.
Marian broke the ice just a minute into the game, eliminating a wire-to-wire win for the Scots as the Sabres held their first and only lead. Alma wouldn't let the lead last long as MJ Humphreys had himself a day starting with scoring a natural hat-trick in just six minutes. Humphreys game-tying goal would be set up by Kevin Koenn followed by his next goal with an assist coming from Cameron O'Bryan, while the third was unassisted. As the Scots held a 3-1 lead in the final minutes of the first quarter, Koenn notched his first goal of the game assisted by Jacob Kluk, Putting Alma up by three. Rounding out the scoring in the first, Humphreys scored his fourth of the contest off a Koenn feed, putting Al a up 5-1 after one frame.
Humphreys would pick back up right where he left off with another two consecutive goals to start the second, increasing the lead to 7-1. Koenn would help his teammate Humphreys out by scoring one of his own a couple minutes following, before Kluk would tally the final of the first half off a Cole Pearson assist, putting Alma up 9-1 at the break.
As the Scots dominated the action throughout the game, the second half proved to be more of the same. Humphreys scored his seventh goal of the game just over a minute into the third quarter with a helper from Koenn. Just second later off a faceoff, the script was flipped as Koenn would score off a Humphreys assist, bringing the Scots lead to 11-1. Humphreys created another scoring opportunity a couple minutes later as he found a cutting Ayden Hibdon who found the back of the net, giving Alma their 12th goal of the game. The Sabres were able to break the scoreless drought in the third as Andrew Nesbitt found the back of the net for their second goal of the game. Humphreys responded right back with his eighth of the game with an assist from Koenn, bringing the score to 13-2 heading into the fourth.
Marian collected another two in the fourth to bring their team total to four goals as Alma added another two as well from Dylan Smith (assisted by Koenn) and Humphreys ninth and final goal of the game. Humphreys nine goals ties a program record for single game goals set by Daniel Buchy set in 2017.
Humphreys ended the game with 11 points on nine goals and two assists, followed by Koenn who had eight points on five assists and three goals. Dylan Smith led both teams with eight ground balls. The brother duo of Cole Pearson and Connor Pearson led the Scots with three caused turnovers each as well.
Alma will now have a small break before returning to action back on Bahlke Field against Hanover College on Saturday, March 22nd. Faceoff for the final non-conference game is set for 12:00 PM.
