WILSON, N.C. – The Barton men's lacrosse team (9-7) rallied from a six-goal deficit to tie the score before eventually falling to Belmont Abbey (9-5), 8-7, Friday afternoon in the semifinals in the 2022 Conference Carolinas Championship at Truist Stadium and Electric Supply Company Field.
The Crusaders, the top seed in the conference championship, advanced to Sunday's final to take on second-seeded Mount Olive (10-5) beginning at 1:00 p.m. The Trojans defeated third-seeded North Greenville (9-8), 12-9, in the later semifinal match on Friday. The Bulldogs were seeded fifth.
Belmont Abbey, the 2022 Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship, received the game-winning goal with six minutes left from Bailey Williams (Buford, Ga.) as the Crusaders beat the Bulldogs for the second time this year by one goal.
Barton senior attacker
Seth Mandryk (Stonewall, Manitoba, CANADA) scored all three of his goals in the second half as the Bulldogs rallied from a 7-1 deficit in the third period to tie the score at seven with just under 11 minutes left but stayed off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Freshman midfielder
J.J. Mitchell (Winston-Salem, N.C.) scored twice for the Bulldogs as well.
Three players scored twice for Belmont Abbey – Erik Sahlgren (Tyson's Corner, Va.), Noah Haas (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) and Williams – in the victory. The Crusaders' goalkeeper, Thomas Sullivan (North Babylon, N.Y.), earned the victory after stopping 16 shots while Barton junior
Giuseppe Brown (Gorham, Maine) made 10 saves in the losing effort.
