LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine Knights lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday, March 17 as it opens play in the Southern Conference with a game at High Point at 2 p.m. in Vert Stadium.
The game is the Knights' first since knocking off Marquette in the Midwest Classic on March 4. Bellarmine bested the Golden Eagles, who were ranked 18th at the time of the game, 7-6 in double overtime as Brian Wall recorded the game-winning shot with his 14th goal of the season.
Several Knights reaped individual awards following the Midwest Classic. Kevin Fahey was named the SoCon's Defensive Player of the Week while Wall won Offensive Player of the Week honors. Meanwhile, freshman John Hulsman was named to the USILA's national "team of the week" as the goalie.
The win over Marquette upped Bellarmine's season mark to 2-4 on the season.
Wall continues to pace the Knights' offense in 2018. The senior captain has three assists to go along with his 14 goals to total 17 points. Sophomore Morgan Macko is just one point behind Wall for the team lead with eight goals and eight assists.
A pair of freshmen rank third and fourth in scoring for Bellarmine. Landon Trout has registered five goals and four assists, and Luke Legnard had found the back of the net six times while dishing out two assists.
On defense, Eric Rubak and Josh Wehn are the caused turnover leaders with eight and seven respectively while Fahey and Jon Robbins lead in ground balls with 14 and 13.
Freshman face-off specialist Michael Autry, who has won 56 percent of his battles at the X, is the overall team leader in ground balls with 17.
In goal, the Knights have three different players with starts. Hulsman appears to have emerged as the new starter after taking over the team lead in goals against average (8.11), and save percentage (60.5) while tying for a team-best with 26 saves.
The Panthers are also making their SoCon debut on Saturday, and High Point also is still looking for its first victory of the season.
Taking on some pretty heady competition, the Panthers after opened the season 0-6 while dropping games to three teams ranked in the top six of the country—No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Maryland and No. 6 Virginia.
The Knights and Panthers have one common opponent to date, with both falling to Robert Morris. High Point dropped a 16-11 decision to the Colonials on March 3 (HPU's most recent game) while Bellarmine fell to Robert Morris in its season opener by a score of 15-7.
Asher Nolting paces the Panther offense with a team-leading 24 points on 14 goals and 10 assists. Connor Robinson is HPU's leading goal-scorer with 16 on the season.
The Panthers also have split goalie time with Jim Troutner and Zach Tuell each getting three starts on the season. Each has appeared in all six games with Troutner garnering the lion's share of the minutes while gobbling up 47 saves on the season.
At face-off, the Panthers are just under 50 percent on the season, winning 85 of 178 for 47.8 percent. Davis Sampere has taken 146 face-offs for HPU while winning exactly half (73).
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