William Penn Reaches Fourth-Straight Heart Finals with 12-6 Win Over Columbia

Atchison, Kan.--The Statesmen men's lacrosse team will play for a berth to nationals as it held off No. 3 seed Columbia 12-6 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship Semifinals Thursday.

No. 2 seed WPU (11-3), which dropped the Cougars for the second time this season, will now advance to Saturday's Final against No. 1 seed Benedictine at 2 p.m. in Atchison.  The Ravens defeated William Penn 10-5 back on April 18.

The navy and gold never trailed Thursday, claiming the opening faceoff and scoring 46 seconds into the night on an unassisted shot by Kenny Bohney (Sr., Moorhead, Minn., Exercise Science).

Three minutes later, Isaac Heitschmidt (Fr., Oregon City, Ore., Industrial Technology) doubled the advantage, also doing the work on his own.  Both sides were then scoreless for the remaining 10-plus minutes of the first quarter.

CC (11-6) stormed back into the contest with two quick goals to start the second stanza, but the Statesmen, who have now qualified for all four of the Heart Finals ever played, pulled away with six unanswered scores, including five before halftime.

Lucas Cox (Fr., Memphis, Tenn., Kinesiology) (unassisted) put WPU on top for good with 12:40 on the clock, while Matt Scott (Fr., Denver, Colo., Sports Management) helped Bohney to his second goal of the night.

Garrett Katrana (So., Parker, Colo., Industrial Technology) joined the party with assists on scores by Heitschmidt and Scott, before Everett Breniser (So., Centennial, Colo., Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) placed a pass from Bohney in the back of the net for a 7-2 advantage at intermission.

Katrana opened the final 30 minutes with an unassisted goal just 3:26 into the third period.  The Cougars eventually stopped the run, but Bohney and Harley Williams (Sr., Edmonton, Alberta, Political Science), both of whom were assisted by Katrana, essentially closed the door later in the quarter with back-to-back scores within a minute of each other.

The fourth quarter was simply a formality with William Penn being outscored 3-2 down the stretch.  Scott recorded both of his team's goals with Breniser helping on the first winner.

Scott and Bohney paced their crew with three goals apiece, while Heitschmidt was good for two.  Katrana notched four assists to go along with his one goal.

The Statesmen won comfortably despite only posting a 47-40 advantage in shots.  Sixteen of the 21 faceoffs were secured by the victors with Bryce Campbell (Sr., Meridian, Idaho, Kinesiology) going 14-for-19.

WPU overcame 20 turnovers (17 for CC) by refusing to bend on clears; Columbia was just 9-for-19 in clear attempts, while WPU was 14-for-21.

A 30-25 edge in ground balls was paced by seven from Campbell.

Connor Russell (Sr., Grand Haven, Mich., Applied Computer Science) took the victory with nine saves in front of the cage.

"This was not a perfect game, but I am proud of the guys for stepping up across the board," Head Coach Luke Christiansen said.  "Every phase stepped up at some point to get us the win.  The job is not done, but there is something to be really proud of in getting to four straight conference championship games.  The standard for the program has been set."