Zach Dumais, Opinion editor

The Mercyhurst University men’s lacrosse team took on the Lewis University Flyers on Monday, Feb. 21. On a beautiful day for lacrosse, the Lakers had a dominant showing. It seemed as if very little could go wrong for Mercyhurst.

The final score ended up being 17-5 in Mercyhurst’s favor. Mercyhurst and Lewis University have a short matchup history as the two have only played each other twice. Mercyhurst first played Lewis University on Feb. 15, 2020, and won 10-2. The Lakers are now on a 2-game win streak against Lewis with their dominating win last week.

The Lakers have scored an astonishing 27 goals against Lewis in their two matchups. The matchup on Feb. 21 was held at Saxon Stadium at 2 p.m. The game started out well for Mercyhurst and they never looked back.

Junior Myles Hamm had the game’s first goal which took him less than a minute into the game to score. The Lakers would exit the first quarter, leading 3-2 after sophomore Ethan Landymore scored two more goals for Mercyhurst.

Mercyhurst played extremely well in the second quarter, holding the Lewis University Flyers scoreless. Junior Brett Olney, the goalkeeper, led this defensive effort as he ended up with 16 saves out of 21 shots on goal.

The score going into the half was 7-2 for the Lakers. The Lakers only continued to get stronger throughout the game. Mercyhurst ended up scoring eight unanswered goals with the first four goals in the third quarter being added to the Lakers total.

Myle Hamm scored two of these four goals and the score in the third would end up being 11-2. Hamm scored another two goals during the fourth quarter and the score ended up being a 17-5 total. The Lakers played great as a team, but individual players naturally shined also.

Bryce Johnson led the team with five assists. Ethan Landymore had a team-high six goals along with an assist. Hamm finished the game with five goals, while sophomore Luke Ingianni had two goals. Sophomore Braden McCard, senior Todd Redman, junior Bryce Johnson and senior Jacob Emerson all contributed to the effort with one goal each.

Mercyhurst dominated the Flyers on faceoffs, winning 21 of them while the Flyers only won 4. Mercyhurst also controlled the game offensively with their sheer number of shots. Mercyhurst had 52 shots com-pared to Lewis University’s 33 which contributed to their win. The win is very exciting for the Lakers as the Lewis University Flyers were ranked No. 17. The next matchup for the Lakers is a highly anticipated semi-final rematch against the highly ranked Le Moyne Dolphins.

The game will be held at a neutral site at 3 p.m. on Feb. 26. Mercyhurst has never beaten the Le Moyne Dolphins in their four-game matchup history and lost 9-11 in the semifinal match-up last year. Their first matchup was in 2009 and they have only played each other on rare occasions. The Lakers certainly hope to break this streak and get revenge in the 26th matchup.