The Oglethorpe men's lacrosse team led from beginning to end Wednesday night in an 11-8 victory over the visiting LaGrange Panthers. The Stormy Petrels led by as many as 5 goals in the fourth quarter and held on for the 3-goal victory, improving to 4-3 on the season and snapping a two-game losing streak.

The Petrels scored the opening 2 goals over the first 5:15, getting tallies from freshman attackman Darius Reliford and freshman middie Alston Gill. LaGrange answered back less than a minute later, but Oglethorpe tallied another couple goals, including a man-up goal from junior middie Brian Green with 8:12 left. Freshman middie Carsen Van Note added another to give his team a 3-goal lead with 4:49 remaining in the period, and Reliford added a second later on to give his team a 5-2 lead after the opening quarter.

Green scored another man-up goal off an assist from freshman attackman Jazz Washington in the second quarter, but that was the only tally they would muster in the period and the Panthers pulled to within 6-4 at halftime.

The Petrels started to assert control in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors 3-1. They got another man-up goal from sophomore attackman Andrew Collins, making the team a solid 3-for-5 on extra-man opportunities for the game, and a huge man-down goal from senior attackman Cam Ritter with less than 90 seconds left in the quarter off an assist from senior middie Jack Brand. That gave the team a 9-5 lead headed into the fourth quarter and they extended that to 10-5 with 12:47 left on a Collins goal off an assist from Washington. 

LaGrange gave themselves a chance, scoring consecutive markers to make it 10-7 with 5:10 on the clock. Oglethorpe got another goal from Ritter, though, to push the lead back out to 4. LaGrange drew a goal closer again, but was unable to take advantage of an Oglethorpe offside penalty with under 90 seconds left. The Petrels were able to kill off that penalty and the game.

Reliford led Oglethorpe with 3 goals and an assist, while Washington added a pair of assists. Freshman defender Conner Grisar led the Petrels with four ground balls, while sophomore goalie Addison Irwin posted nine saves.

The Petrels scooped 28 ground balls to LaGrange's 13 and won 18 of 22 faceoffs. Oglethorpe outshot LaGrange 43-26 overall and 27-17 on goal.

Oglethorpe heads back to North Carolina over the weekend, where they'll meet up with Methodist Monday at 1 p.m.