MSU comeback comes up short at Liberty

The #12 Spartans dropped a tight decision on Sunday at #6 Liberty.  The Spartans were lead by a 6 goal performance by senior attackman Nick Bowman. Sophomore Brendan Bettelon won 57% of his faceoffs while junior Will Peterson lead the way with 3 ground balls.

The Flames got off to a hot start scoring the first four goals of the game before the Spartans could answer.  Senior Keegan Wells got the Spartans on the board first on a pass from Sophomore Shayne Miciek.  The Spartans would trade goals for the remainder of the first.  Junior Faceoff Specialist Corey Jaeger scored his first goal of the year and Senior midfielder Matt Rice scored next to make the score 7-3 after the first quarter.

The second Quarter saw much more even action.  The Spartans and Flames each scored 3 goals in the stanza.  Senior Nick Bowman scored all three of the Spartan's second quarter goals with assists from Senior Jake DesRosiers and Junior Demetre Crews.

The Spartans slipped further behind in the third giving up 5 goals.  Senior Bennet Osterink scored his first of the game and Bowman added the other.  The score was 15-8 at the end of three.

In the fourth quarter MSU roared back with 4 straight goals.  Senior Long Stick Midfielder Ian Genord scored first on an assist from Wells. Bowman added his fifth of the game to bring MSU within 5.  Genord added another goal as did Osterink to cut the lead to 3.  The Flames answered with one of their own.  Bowman rounded out his double hat-trick day to bring it back to a 3 goals difference.  With 2 minutes remaining Senior midfielder Keaton Mitchell scored the final goal of the game to make the score 16-14.

Senior Jackson White had 6 saves and Sophomore Connor Modd had 2 in goal for the green and white.  

The Spartans are next in action on Saturday 2/29 when they travel to #1 South Carolina.