COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Missouri Baptist University men's lacrosse team is still in search of its first win for 2021 after suffering a 15-6 setback at No. 3-ranked Columbia College Thursday evening. Playing under the lights for its Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) opener, the home team held the upper hand all night outshooting the Spartans, 64-30, and 32-13 in shots on goal.

Scoreless for the first 12 minutes of the game behind five Hunter Filla saves and a pair of CC shots off the post and crossbar, the third-ranked Cougars finally converted on a Tyler Parrott goal with 2:42 remaining in the first. Off the next faceoff, Columbia struck again and went into the second period with a 2-0 lead.

Attackman Alex Scott delivered MBU's first goal midway through the second to make it a 3-1 ballgame, however, a trio of Columbia goals with under two minutes to go ended up overshadowing a late man-up goal from Ian Olenski and a strong half defensively. At the half, CC led 6-2, and nearly tripled the Spartans shot output (39-14), while Hunter Filla was a busy man collecting 12 first-half saves in the cage.

MoBap nearly matched the Cougars in scoring in the third but saw the deficit balloon to 10 in the fourth. A late goal by Andrew Spillars with less than 10 seconds remaining helped MBU avoid a double-digit loss to the still undefeated Cougars (2-0, 1-0 KCAC). Spillars was the only Spartan with a multi-goal performance.

MBU's other goal scorers on the night included Jaxon Haas (1 G, 2 A) and Alex Todd with the team's second man-up goal on four opportunities. In goal, Hunter Filla recorded 17 saves, the second-highest total in his career.

The Spartans have another tough test ahead of them as they travel to Oskaloosa, Iowa on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest at (RV) William Penn University.