ALAMOSA, Colo. – The Westminster men's lacrosse team overcame a tough start and rallied for a 10-8 win at Adams State in Friday evening in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.
 
"This team is displaying a resilience that is fun to coach," Westminster head coach Mason Goodhand said after the game. "There aren't peaks and valleys in their emotions and they keep grinding it out."
 
Westminster (5-1, 4-0 RMAC) trailed 3-1 after the first quarter after committing five turnovers in the period. Josh Holland tallied the game's only second quarter goal to send the game to halftime with Adams State (2-5, 1-2) leading, 3-2.
 
The home squad opened its lead to 6-3 with 9:45 to play in the third quarter before the Griffins began their comeback. Holland scored on the man-advantage just 38 seconds later to trim the deficit by one and give him 100 career goals as a Griffin.
 
Cole Flinders out one away at the 2:39 mark of the third and then Holland struck again at 2:07 to level the game at 6-6 entering the final stanza. Westminster continued its five-goal spirt with consecutive goals from Blake Bruner to build an 8-6 lead with 11:08 to play.
 
Adams State answered with a pair of goals to tie the game at 8-8 midway through the fourth. With 4:57 remaining, Holland found Sarjeant for his second goal of the night and then Holland added an insurance strike with 2:26 on the clock.
 
"We started an all-freshman defense and it took them a mistake or two to calm down," commented Goodhand. "Myer Mooney was up to the challenge and had an excellent game in his first career start."
 
The Griffins finished the game with 37 shots and they got 22 of those attempts on cage. They limited Adams State to 26 shots – 16 on goal – and they won 16 of 22 faceoffs. Westminster was 14 of 15 in clearing chances and forced 15 ASU turnovers.
 
Holland finished with his 10th career five point game after notching his 20th career hat trick. He tied a school record with 14 shot attempts with a season high eight on cage. Sarjeant had a four-point effort with two goals and two assists.
 
Jake Berard controlled the faceoff battle by winning 15 of 21 while picking up four ground balls. Chase Flinders also had four ground balls and Kolton Atkinson claimed three. Philip Cannell earned another win in cage behind an eight save performance.
 
"Jake Berard and his wingmen were tremendous at faceoff X today," Goodhand added. "That was huge for us when he fell behind and needed more scoring chances."
 
Seth Stowell scored three goals to lead the Grizzlies. Connor Johnson took the loss in goal with 12 saves.
 
Westminster will be back in action on Sunday when they play their final regular season road game at CSU-Pueblo at noon. The Griffins can clinch a spot in the RMAC Tournament with a win over the ThunderWolves.
 

MLAX | Congrats to Josh Holland on scoring career goal 100 in the 3Q of today's game. #GoGriffins #RMACmlax pic.twitter.com/lTrVmG0f5r

— Westminster Griffins (@wc_griffins) April 8, 2016