Huntingdon advances to USA South championship game

LAGRANGE, Ga. – The Huntingdon men's lacrosse team will play for the inaugural USA South Athletic Conference Tournament men's lacrosse championship on Sunday.

The top-seeded Hawks rolled past Greensboro College 12-5 in the conference semifinals on Saturday. Huntingdon will play Methodist for the conference title on Sunday at 3 p.m. (Eastern).

Methodist defeated Piedmont 10-9 in overtime to advance to the championship game.

This will be the second meeting between Huntingdon and Methodist in a little more than two weeks. Huntingdon scored in the final minute to beat the Monarchs 7-6 on March 31.

In Saturday's semifinal, Huntingdon started strong and did not allow the game to remain close. Seven different Hawks scored as Huntingdon built a 7-1 lead in the first half.

The Hawks scored the first four goals of the game, including three goals in the first five minutes of the game, and led 6-1 at the end of the first quarter. Huntingdon led 7-2 at halftime and maintained at least a four-goal lead for the remainder of the game.

Goalie Matt Murphy, who ranks among the Division III leaders in goals against average and save percentage, recorded 12 saves in 17 shots on goal for the Hawks.

Jackson Schrampfer scored three goals against Greensboro and Kendrick Ballard, Bryce Coates and Zach Barnhill each scored two goals. Barnhill also had four ground balls.

Mac Puller had one goal and one assist, Austen Saucier and Adrian Harper each scored one goal and Sam Hitt had one assist. Tyler Keiser finished with two caused turnovers.

Hitt, the USA South Player of the Year, was 17-for-21 (81 percent) on faceoffs and finished with 13 ground balls. Hitt is 235-for-332 (70.8 percent) on faceoffs this season, leads Division III in faceoff wins and is ranked in the top-10 for winning percentage.

Records: Huntingdon (15-2); Greensboro (9-9)