Air Force Academy
VMI
Falcon Lacrosse Cruises by VMI, 14-4
4/15/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Box Score in PDF 
LEXINGTON, Va. - Chris Walsch led Air Force to victory over VMI with a hat trick performance in conference action, Saturday afternoon, in Lexington, Va. The Falcons, now 8-5 with a 4-1 mark in the SoCon, will take on conference front-runner, No. 15 Richmond, next week at home for Senior's Day.
Walsch was the first to add his name to the score sheet with an unassisted goal two minutes into the game. Moments later, Trent Harper won the ensuing face-off in stride and found Walsch open for his second shot for a goal, just six seconds after his first. The assist marked Harper's third of the season, while Walsch tallied his 30th goal.
The Keydets responded with three unanswered goals of their own, including one in a man-up situation, to take the lead, 3-2, at the 4:19 mark. Determined to keep things from getting out of control, Matthew Schwartz found Walsch open for a shot and his third goal in the first period. With two minutes remaining in the opening period, sophomore midfielder Jack Flynn assisted Grant Gould his first goal of the game to lift the Falcons to a 4-3 lead heading into the next period.
The Falcons dominated the second period of play, netting three goals while holding VMI to three shots and no goals. Sophomore defender Roland Wheeler IV added his name to the season scorebook with his first assist as he fed Schwartz for his first goal of the game, eighth of the season. Andrew Tien followed up with an unassisted goal for his ninth of the season. Flynn capped the first half with his 10th goal from Walsch's feed, extending Air Force's lead, 7-3.
Air Force continued their scoring clinic into the third quarter, adding three more goals while holding the Keydets to only one shot and no goals. Cameron Carter plugged an unassisted goal in at the 10:33 mark, followed by Walsch's fourth goal of the game in an unassisted attack at the 6:31 mark. Less than thirty seconds later, Schwartz tallied his second assist in Nick Hruby's first goal of the game. The six-goal streak lifted the Falcons to a 10-3 lead at the close of the third period.
VMI was the first to score in the final period, breaking the scoring drought for their fourth and final goal of the game. Hruby responded with his second goal from Flynn's feed. Hruby has 29 goals on the season while Flynn notched his seventh assist. Junior face-off specialist Josh Radjenovich added his first goal of the season following a shot off the face-off at the 6:45 mark. Radjenovich won two-of-three face-offs in the fourth period. In the final two minutes of play, senior Barrett Anigian found freshman Chet Dunstan open for a shot and his second goal of the season. Sophomore Roman Rohrbach capped the game with his first goal of the season in an unassisted attack with a minute remaining.
At the final whistle Air Force led VMI, 14-4, to secure the fourth win in conference play this season. The Falcon defense held VMI to only 12 shots on the game, while Air Force tallied 55 shots. The Falcon defense caused seven turnovers, led by two-time SoCon Defensive Player of the Week, Brandon Jones, with two caused turnovers and a season-high 11 ground balls. The Falcons picked up twice-as-many ground balls, scooping up 35 to the Keydets' 17.
Harper dominated the face-off X, winning 14-of-16 (.875) face-off attempts on the day. Harper has the highest face-off win-percentage in the conference. Mitch Rose and Paxton Boyer split time in the Falcons' cage; Rose allowed three goals with three saves in the first thirty minutes, while Boyer allowed one goal with two saves in the second thirty minutes.
The Falcons return home to take on the conference front-runner, No.15 Richmond, Saturday, April 22, at noon MT, for Senior's day. The game marks a rematch between the 2016 SoCon Championship finalists.
