•  

Jones Breaks Records as Men's Lacrosse Rolls into Conference Play

Saturday, March 16, 2013
 

Women’s lacrosse

Senior Ian Jones came into the game at Richard Stockton needing to win only three faceoffs to become the all-time leader in Muhlenberg men’s lacrosse history. He certainly got plenty of opportunities to break the record.

Jason Mertz
Mertz added two assists to his second career hat trick for a career-high five points.
Jones won 19 faceoffs to set the school record in that category as well as ground balls as the Mules defeated Stockton, 18-12, in one of the highest scoring games in program history. The win was the fourth in five games for Muhlenberg (4-3), which has only Centennial Conference games remaining this season, beginning next Saturday at Franklin & Marshall.

The 30 combined goals were the second most since men’s lacrosse was reinstated as a varsity sport in 2003, topped only by 32 in an 18-14 loss to Stevens last year. The 18 goals were the most scored by the Mules since a 20-9 victory against Kenyon in 2005.

Muhlenberg scored eight goals in the second quarter, one short of the school record, and had 12 goals by halftime, its most since a 2008 game vs. Moravian and two short of the school record.

The Mules’s 10 assists tied the modern school record for a game; they had 11 in a 16-8 win against Swarthmore in 1975.

For the first time since 2004, four Muhlenberg players recorded hat tricks, as seniors Doug Rheiner and Kyle Houston, junior Tom Glancy and sophomore Jason Mertz each scored three goals.

Kyle Houston
Houston's three goals were one more than his career total entering the game.
In addition to notching his first point of the season on an assist, Jones was 19-of-30 on faceoffs and picked up 16 ground balls. Both were career highs, and he now stands atop the program’s career lists with 257 faceoff wins and 180 ground balls.

The Mules led only 4-3 after the first quarter and had trouble shaking the Ospreys (2-3) until midway through the second. Ahead 7-5, they reeled off five consecutive goals in a span of 5:33 to pull away. Sophomore Jon Thomas was involved in three of the goals, scoring the first and assisting on two others, and Glancy netted a pair.

Thomas finished with a career-high three assists and was of 10 players to net at least one point for an offense that reached double digits in goals for the third straight game – something the team hadn’t accomplished since 2009. Since being shut out in the first half against nationally ranked Stevens, the Mules have scored 38 goals in two-and-a-half games.

Muhlenberg, which had not won a game by more than five goals since 2010, was able to substitute freely with the big lead and played all four of its goalies in the second half.
Click here for box score.
Click here for complete stats.