Irving, Texas - The Centenary lacrosse team finished its regular season with a flourish on Saturday as the Gents scored a program record number of goals in an impressive 18-8 rout of the Dallas Crusaders at the U-Dallas Lacrosse Facility.
The Gents (2-9) completed a season sweep over Dallas after previously defeating the Crusaders at home, 7-4, on March 7. Dallas finishes its season 0-4.
The first period ended in a 1-1 tie but Centenary flexed its muscles in the second quarter, outscoring the Crusaders, 9-3 to take a 10-4 lead at the half. The Gents continued the scoring barrage in the third quarter, adding six more goals to just one for Dallas. The Crusaders finished with a slight edge of 3-2 in the final period but the game was well in hand by that time.
Sophomore A Mark Temple (Houston, Texas) opened the scoring with his team-leading 10th goal, an unassisted score, at the 3:31 mark. Austin Gibbons then tied the score with just 26 seconds remaining with the assist credited to Preston Thompson. Freshman MF Wikenson Julien (Immokalee, Fla.) then scored to give the Maroon and White a 2-1 lead with sophomore A John Mark Waniewski (Bossier City, La.) assisting.
Freshman M/A Jordan Cook (Bryant, Ark.) then found the net twice just one minute apart to make it a 4-1 game. Sophomore MF Blake Federico (Boerne, Texas) assisted the first goal and sophomore Kyle Comi (Allen, Texas) the second. Temple struck again for another unassisted goal at the 8:01 mark to increase the lead to 5-1.
Centenary then struck for three goals in just over a minute as Waniewski, sophomore M Dario Garcia (Dallas, Texas), and Cook all found the net to make it 8-2. Waniewski then added a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the half to finish with three in the first period and make it a 10-4 halftime advantage.
Comi (two), Cook (two), Temple, and freshman MF Jacob Miller (Liberty Hill, Texas) all scored in the third period and Temple and Miller scored the two Centenary goals in the final period. Cook finished the day with a team-high five goals and added an assist. Temple scored four and had an assist, and Waniewski recorded the hat trick and had two assists. Comi and Miller each finished with two goals and Comi had a team-high three assists.
The Gents finished the match with a decisive advantage in shots (61-37) and won 22 of 29 face-off opportunities. Centenary recorded 54 ground balls to 48 for Dallas. Austin Gibbons and Matt Senter combined to score seven of Dallas' eight goals.
Centenary goalkeeper Thomas Siskron (Shreveport) played all 60 minutes and collected 16 saves and now has 176 saves this season and an impressive 297 career saves. Siskron added four ground balls. Sophomore D Ethan Little (Tyler, Texas) led the way with nine ground balls, Temple had seven ground balls, Cook tallied six, and Julien and freshman D Noah Katz (Las Vegas, Nev.) each had four. Cook and freshman D Matthew Lulich (New Orleans, La.) each had two caused turnovers.
The 2021 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Lacrosse Championship will be held April 30-May 2 in Colorado Springs, Colo. as Coloroado College will serve as the host, and the Gents will learn in the coming days whether they will compete in the event or not.
A link to the Gents' complete schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mlax/2020-21/schedule
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