WINGATE, N.C.--The NCAA DII Men's Lacrosse Championships continued with the Second Round slate of games on Sunday afternoon with eight matchups across the North and South Regions, including the South's 7-seed No. 12 Trojans traveling to face the 2-seed No. 6 Bulldogs. After going 0-2 against Wingate this season, including a loss in the regular season and South Atlantic Conference Semifinals, Anderson proved it is hard to beat a team three times, coming out on top of the Bulldogs by a score of 21-13 to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals.
The game favored Wingate early, as the Bulldogs took a 4-1 lead in the opening ten minutes and rounded out Q1 with a 6-2 advantage. The Trojans got two back to open the scoring in the second quarter, but Wingate answered with two more, advancing the score to 8-4 in favor of the host team.
Anderson then flipped an offensive switch, scoring ten unanswered, including five-straight in the final five minutes of the second quarter, followed by five more to open Q3. AU outscored WU 14-4 across the second and third quarters.
The Trojans tacked on five more in the fourth, extending their lead as great as 10 in the final few minutes of play, ultimately coming away with a 21-13 victory.
Cole Sparks (West Islip, N.Y.) and Brayden Bushnoe (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) each recorded four-goal games, with Sparks adding two assists and Bushnoe contributing one assist and five groundballs.
Radyn Badraun (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and Cooper Laughlin (Wooster, Ohio) both boasted hattricks on the afternoon, along with two assists apiece to each contribute five points to AU's offensive numbers.
Also getting on the scoresheet for the Black and Gold were Matthew Rodgers (Carmel, Ind.), Jacob Kirchhofer (McKinney, Texas), Brodie Deutsch (Wilmington, N.C.), Diego Lopez (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) and Sammy Lewis (Maple Grove, Minn.).
Anderson won 26 of the game's 38 faceoffs, with Aiden Dixon (Forest Hill, Md.) going 14-of-20 and AJ Rush (Chantilly, Va.) going 12-of-17.
In goal for the Black and Gold, Adin Laughlin (Wooster, Ohio) added 10 saves to his resume. AU recorded 49 total shots, with 35 coming on frame, while Wingate totaled 37 shots with 23 on target.
The Trojans will now travel to face the 6-seed No. 9 Lenoir-Rhyne on Wednesday (May 13). The Bears defeated 3-seed Florida Tech this afternoon. Opening faceoff for the NCAA Quarterfinals is 4 PM.
