WESTMINSTER, MD – The nationally ranked York College men's lacrosse team overcame a slow start to the game Saturday at McDaniel. However the Spartans outscored their hosts 6-1 in the second half to pull away for a solid 9-5 win in Westminster.

The Spartans, who sit tenth in the most recent USILA Poll, improve to 2-0 for the year while the Green Terror fall to 0-1.

The Green Terror got off to a fantastic start in the game as Timothy McNichol tallied back-to-back goals 14 seconds apart less than three minutes into the game to give McDaniel the early edge. The Spartans got their feet underneath them and got on the board with 6:39 left when senior Tyler Hutson (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) fed junior Andrew Warburton (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson) on the left wing. Warburton fired a shot past McDaniel Keeper Eric Ritchie for the Spartans' first goal.

The Green Terror responded with a Calvin Fleagle goal with 3:18 left in the opening quarter, as the McDaniel lead was 3-1 after one quarter of play.

Freshman Dillon Hannah (Catonsville, Md./Catonsville) continued the torrid start to his collegiate career with his fourth goal of the year off a pass from Taylor Tolbert (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg) to open the second quarter scoring 4:46 into the stanza. Troy Becker put the Green Terror back up by two with his unassisted goal with 8:53 remaining in the half. The Spartans trimmed their deficit to one on the first collegiate goal from Matt Whitcher (Huntington Station, N.Y./Huntington) 6:57 before the half.

The Spartans drew even with Hutson's fifth goal of the year, a man-up tally, just 1:46 into the second half. Becker would put McDaniel back up on top 5-4 with his second goal of the day just over two minutes later but it would be all York after that.

Hannah tallied his fifth goal of the year as he scored off an Andrew Gamble (Easton, Md./Easton) feed with 9:32 left in the third. Warburton struck for his second goal of the day when he scored at the 7:53 mark to give York a 6-5 lead.

The Spartans closed out the scoring with three fourth quarter goals as Gamble scored twice followed by defender Joey Fiorino (Reisterstown, Md./McDonogh) rattling the cage with a goal off a pass from Warburton with 3:39 left in the game.

Spartan head coach Brandon Childs was happy to earn the road victory against a tough McDaniel team. He was especially happy with his team's play in the second half.

"The whole message at halftime was we had to start playing tougher lacrosse," said Childs. "Garrett Barker (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) made a tough play to start the second half and we ended up scoring after that play and that really set the tone from there out."

Childs knows getting wins is very important for his squad.

"Getting a win is huge. Doing on the road is tougher," said Childs. "I like playing McDaniel because their coach is a great guy and a very hard working guy so you know their team is going to be that way. This is a great game to prepare us for the type of games we will have in our conference. This will be very comparable to what we will face in conference play."

Warburton and Gamble paced York as they each notched four points on two goals and two assists while they each had a pair of ground balls in the win. Hannah chipped in with a pair of goals and an assist while Hutson had two points on a goal and an assist while he also forced a career-high two caused turnovers. Fiorino notched his first career goal while he also had a ground ball in addition to being 7-of-13 in face-offs.

Becker and McNicol led the Green Terror with two goals each. Pat Bivons dished out two assists for McDaniel.

Junior Caleb Abney (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) recorded eight saves in his 58:41 of work. Abney allowed five goals as he continues to have a strong start to his season. James Anderson (Pasadena, Md./Annapolis Area Christian) the Spartans' man-down goalie was not forced to make a save in his 1:19 of action in the win.

Ritchie was under duress most of the day as he kept McDaniel in the game. Ritchie notched 18 saves including six in the fourth quarter, preventing the game from becoming a rout.

York outshot McDaniel 40-24 while the Spartans also won the ground ball battle, 20-13. Both teams won nine face-offs but York was much cleaner with the ball as they committed just eight turnovers while the Green Terror had 19 miscues.

The Spartans return to action on Wednesday afternoon when they welcome #17 Roanoke College to Kinsley Field. First face off is set for 3:00 pm in York.

Andrew Warburton photo courtesy of Scott Guise - Director of Athletic Communications