Liberty Men’s lacrosse falls to Virginia Tech

A call to action and a winter of preparation preceded the Liberty men’s lacrosse matchup against Virginia Tech Feb. 18. 

The two teams met in Blacksburg last October for an exhibition that went poorly for the Flames, who lost to the Hokies 17-7. Liberty, however, displayed greater fight in a competitive matchup in the brisk February air.

After starting the season with home wins against Temple and NC State, Liberty turned to its third event for an unusually early matchup against in-state rival Virginia Tech. Despite an early score from the Hokies, the Flames lit up the nets in the first, leading 4-1 at the end of the quarter. 

The reason for the Flames’ quick start was their first line of attack. That first line is made up of a combination of six incredibly talented attackmen and midfielders who have a penchant for pouring in goals. That six is led by grad student and team captain Cam Carter, juniors Keaton Mohs and Braden Landry, sophomore Willem Geary and the Branham brothers, Luke and Cooper, who are in their freshman and senior year, respectively. 

“If I could have replicated any of the quarters, it would have been that first quarter,” Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. “It was some of the best lacrosse I’ve seen us play all year.”

After another score early in the second quarter, the fire was doused as the Hokies netted four goals in 150 seconds to even up the score. Another Tech goal with just over a minute left in the half handed the lead to the Hokies, and the maroon and orange crowd made its presence at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields known.

The Flames scored to open the second half, but Virginia Tech responded with a three-goal run to take a 9-6 lead. Life for Liberty came in the form of Geary, rocketing in two scores to bring the Flames within one. Liberty and Virginia Tech then traded another goal, and the Hokies led the Flames 10-9 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

As the clock ran down in the fourth quarter, Liberty had multiple opportunities to tie things, but a myriad of mistakes mitigated potential chances, and the Hokies scored thrice more before the end of regulation to beat the Flames, 13-9.

“Not taking anything away from Virginia Tech, but a lot of the damage we sustained today was self-inflicted,” McQuillan said. “A loss is a loss, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of that damage we did to ourselves. It’s something we can fix hopefully for the future.”

“We just kinda threw the ball away, had a lot more unforced turnovers than we needed to, which screwed up our opportunities that we had,” Geary said. “This game, we were with them the whole game. That just shows we can play with anyone in the MCLA.”

McQuillan sees the learning potential from the close loss.

“We’re gonna use this as fuel, we’re gonna use it as motivation and we’re gonna fix the mistakes we were able to recognize today and hopefully, moving forward, fix a lot of that stuff,” McQuillan said. “Unfortunately, we’ve gotta start three games into the season with a loss, but that changes nothing for us. Everything that we want to accomplish is still ahead of us.”

The Flames will be back in action Feb. 25 and 26, taking on Colorado State before heading on a seven-game road trip in March.

Barnes is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion