GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Guilford College men's lacrosse team kicked off their 2024 spring slate, hosting Birmingham-Southern College to kick off the Marty Kelly era. Despite fighting back late in the fourth stanza, the Quakers fell short against the Panthers, with a final score of 10-7.
B-SC extended their undefeated start to 3-0, while GC dropped to 0-1.
Gavin Dellinger (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) spent the duration of the game in goal, saving 18 shots at a .643 save percentage. Nathan Pepe of the Panthers made 15 saves with a percentage of .682.
Jax Atkins (Mechanicsville, Va.) won the majority of his faceoffs, accounting for eight ground balls,
Ezekiel Gravley (Morganton, N.C.) with four.
For the visitors, offensive threats Cameron Herd and Micah Finotti led their team in scoring with three apiece. Joey Amatulli scored twice, and Joey Amatulli had two assists on the day.
B-SC opened the scoring roughly four minutes in. Towards the end of the period, Herd took over, netting two shots in the span of a minute leading to the Panthers leading by three going into the second period.
Finotti extended the visitors' lead to four, before the Quakers got on the board with a goal from Nick Honkomp (Rolesville, N.C.) on a pass from Seth Woods (Hilton Head Island, S.C.). Finotti scored once more to restore the Panthers' four-score lead, and Amatulli joined the fun with under four minutes until halftime. Woods tallied his first score of the season later on, but B-SC was in control at the end of the half, 6-2.
Up a man to begin the third quarter, Woods brought the Quakers back within three, but Kyle Winter countered two minutes later. Immediately after, Jason Campbell (Fairfax, Va.) scored a solo goal to make the score 7-4. The Panthers controlled the offensive flow to round out the third, netting two more shots, one from Graham Ferraro and another from Herd, to lead 9-4 entering the contests' final 15 minutes.
Guilford found their stride in the final frame, goals from Dirk Meinhart (Garfield, Ky.) and Gavin Brown (Charleston, S.C.) within thirty seconds brought their teams' deficit to just three with just over 10 minutes to play. Bashwyn Fitch (Charleston, S.C.) scored three minutes later to continue their offensive onslaught, giving GC a late push entering crunch time. The comeback proved to be too late, as Guilford would eventually fall 10-7 after giving up a late score.
GC continues their long opening homestand with a cross-town visit from rivals Greensboro College on Wednesday, February 21. Game time is set for 5:00 p.m.
#GoQuakes
