ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist men's lacrosse program notched a monumental victory tonight, as they defeated the Saint Louis Billikens, 16-2. The win clinched the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference Southwest Division Title, which sends the Spartans to the conference playoffs.
Missouri Baptist (7-4, 3-0 GRLC) was led by freshman Dan Mollett, who scored five goals in the contest. He was followed by Aaron McClintock's four goals and PJ Brueggemann's three goals.
Goalie Ben Bowler made five saves in the contest to preserve the victory.
Missouri Baptist got things started early, as PJ Bruggemann sniped a goal to give MBU a 1-0 lead in the 1stquarter.
Dan Mollett scored shortly after to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.
Aaron McClintock scored the next two goals in the quarter and the Spartans led 4-0 after the 1st quarter.
McClintock wasted no time trying to get a hat trick when he blasted the first goal for the Spartans in the 2ndquarter, which gave MBU a 5-0 lead.
Mollett was involved in the next two Spartan goals. He assisted on Mike Howle's goal to give Missouri Baptist a 6-0 lead. Mollett would give the Spartans a 7-0 lead just before halftime.
The 3rd quarter would be once again dominated by the visiting team. Mollett gave MBU an 8-0 lead when he blasted his third goal of the game, making it the second Spartan to notch a hat trick in the contest.
McClintock decided he would not be outdone by Mollett, so he fired his fourth goal of the game and gave the Spartans a 9-0 lead.
PJ Brueggemann got physical for his next goal. The goalie came out of the crease, so Brueggemann knocked him over, picked up the ground ball and found the back of the net. That extended the lead to 10-0.
Brueggemann became the third MBU player to score a hat trick when he scored the Spartans 11th goal of the game.
Mollett got back into the scoring action when he scored his fourth goal of the game to give Missouri Baptist a 12-0 lead.
The Billikens got a ball past goalie Ben Bowler on back-to-back scoring plays to cut the deficit to 12-2 in the 4th quarter.
Mollett notched his fifth goal of the game midway through the 4th quarter to give the Spartans a 13-2 lead over the Billikens.
Howle bounced in the next goal for the Spartans, his second goal of the game to give MBU a 14-2 lead late in the 4th quarter.
Tim Bensing got into the scoring action when he blasted the Spartans 15th goal of the game.
Ben Eder rounded out the MBU scoring when he scored the 16th goal for the Spartans.
When the final horn sounded, the Missouri Baptist Spartans defeated the Saint Louis Billikens, 16-2.
Missouri Baptist takes on Washington University of St. Louis at 2 pm on Saturday. The two squads will honor Army Specialist Toby Montoya as part of the Wounded Warrior Project. Admission is $5.00 and 100% of proceeds go directly to the organization.
