LEXINGTON, Va. – Freshman Brendan McKenna handed out seven assists to tie a program record, highlighting a 19-9 win for the Jacksonville University men's lacrosse team over Southern Conference foe VMI, Saturday afternoon at Drill Field No. 2.
 
McKenna's seven helpers matched the program's single-game mark, set in 2015 by Tom Moore, while his nine points against the Keydets rank tied for second all-time with Ari Waffle. Coincidentally, Waffle's nine-point performance in 2012 also came against VMI, and he held the single-game point record until Moore's 11-point performance in 2015.
 
"My biggest takeaway today is that Coach Birsner has done a hell of a job building a program at VMI. Those kids fought for 60 minutes and made us earn everything we got," commented head coach John Galloway following the game.
 
"Our advantage at the faceoff X led by Alex Giovinco and Zack Deaken on the wings allowed us to pull away from an evenly contested game. Our offense was slow out of the gates but when it got tight, our playmakers Evan Tyler and Jack Dolan began to shine. Today also served as a welcome party for Brendan McKenna, tying the JU program record with seven assists. Brendan has come to Duval Hour every day for the last three weeks and his hard work and commitment to excellence showed today."
 
Junior Alex Giovinco won 20-of-29 (.690) restarts for the Dolphins, while he and freshman Zack Deaken (7 GBs) combined for 15 ground balls. Deaken also scored and caused a Keydet turnover in the win.
 
Junior Jack Dolan tied the game at 11:45 in the first before McKenna had a hand in the next three goals, as he scored on a helper from redshirt-junior and captain Hayden La Vangie (8:58) and dished to Dolan just 14 seconds later (8:44).  Jacksonville then went goal-for-goal with the Keydets to close out the quarter with a 5-3 lead.
 
After scoring with 1:27 left in the first, redshirt-junior and captain Evan Tyler recorded his second of four goals just 1:58 into the second quarter to help the Dolphins double up the hosts, 6-3. VMI found an answer with back-to-back goals to come within one, but McKenna found Tyler with 1:40 on the clock and Dolan dished to junior Dwayne Mattushik with 14 seconds remaining to extend JU's lead back to three. In a blow just before halftime, VMI's Eric Lane found a gap with one second remaining as JU led 8-6 at the break.
 
With a goal just 1:00 into the third, VMI rallied back within one, 8-7, but that's as close as the Dolphins allowed. With back-to-back 5-0 runs spanning into the fourth that sandwiched a VMI goal, Jacksonville swung the game decisively back in its favor. During that 10-1 run, McKenna scored once and passed out four assists, while Mattushik (2g), Applegate (1g, 1a), Tyler (1g, 1a), and freshman Jack Pucci  (1g, 1a) all chipped in two points.
 
Keeping an eye on the record book, Tyler is just two goals away from overtaking Ryan Serville for the Dolphins' single-season goal record; with 45 points on the year, Dolan is eight points away from surpassing the program's single-season record of 52, also set by Serville in JU's inaugural season in 2010.
 
"We have a lot of work to do if we want to extend our season to May, but we are going to enjoy this bus ride home and begin our prep for Furman as we commit ourselves to sending out our seniors on Milne Field the right way next Saturday," added Galloway.
 
The Dolphins return to D.B. Milne Field next Saturday, April 16 when they play host to Furman at noon.