WHEELING, W. Va. – The Roberts Wesleyan University men's lacrosse team opened its season in impressive fashion, rolling to a 20-10 victory over host Wheeling University in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore attack Gunner MacMillan scored seven goals in his first game as a Redhawk and senior Reid Jackowski notched two goals and six assists in the win.
"It took us about 10 minutes to mesh, but once we did the guys did a great job," Roberts coach Rocky Delfino said. "I was really happy with the effort. The defense was lights out, we competed as a team, we had good spirit, we dominated faceoffs and we had very few penalties."
MacMillan scored three straight goals in a 1:28 span of the first quarter as Roberts overcame an early 1-0 deficit and raced to an 11-4 lead at the half. Five of Jackowski's six assists came on goals by MacMillan.
"Gunner and Reid were on the same page today," Delfino said. "When those two get in sync, we are going to be tough to defend."
Roberts added seven more goals in the third quarter, including two by senior Dan Doviak, to put the game away.
Doviak finished with three goals and two assists and junior Jordon Deats contributed three goals and one assist.
Sophomore Parker Bossard finished with a goal and an assist and Riley Schmeer, Brady Kustra, Jonathon Deats and Luke Delavak all scored once for Roberts.
Roberts dominated face-offs as Schmeer went 15 of 20 and freshman Isaac Marrero won nine of 12. Schmeer led the Redhawks with 10 ground balls and Marrero finished with seven.
Sophomore Andy Davis made six saves in his debut for Roberts and freshman Garrett Kayser made five.
The Redhawks continue their season-opening four game road trip on Sunday, Feb. 19 at Lewis University.