LAKELAND, Fla. - The 11th-ranked Mercyhurst University men's lacrosse team used a big first half and cruised to an 18-8 victory at Florida Southern College on Thursday night in the first of two games in the Sunshine State for the Lakers. Mercyhurst evened its record at 2-2 on the season while the Mocs fell to 2-6 overall.

Mercyhurst outscored Florida Southern, 6-1, in each of the first two quarters to take a 12-2 lead at halftime. The margin ballooned to 16-3 after three quarters before head coach Chris Ryan cleared the bench for the fourth quarter. The Mocs outscored the Lakers, 5-2, in the fourth but the damage had already been done.

Sophomore Derek Richards gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. Fellow sophomore Keyan McQueen followed with a goal nearly two minutes later to give Mercyhurst a 2-0 advantage. Florida Southern's Cody Gray cut the Lakers' lead to 2-1 at 6:02 before Mercyhurst scored the following four goals (two by junior Connor Enright, one each by sophomore James Crowe and junior Shane Endres) in the span of 3:34 to take a 6-1 lead after fifteen minutes.

Lucas Claude scored the first goal of the second quarter for the Mocs to cut the Mercyhurst lead to 6-2. Mercyhurst, however, responded with six unanswered to close out the quarter with a 12-2 advantage. Scoring for the Lakers during the spurt were sophomore John Plaskey (twice), freshman Ryan Vitale, McQueen, Crowe, and senior Trevor Vargo.

Vargo picked up where he left off, scoring three times in the third quarter to help the Lakers take a 16-3 lead after three. Sophomore Kevin Vaughn also added a tally in the third stanza.

Mercyhurst got goals from redshirt sophomore Jon Antonio and freshman Michael Convery in the fourth quarter while Florida Southern's Cody Dyer scored four times against backup goalkeeper, junior Matt Wells.

Vargo finished the night with four goals and two assists to lead the Laker offense. Enright had two goals and two assists while Crowe, McQueen, and Plaskey each had a pair of tallies in the victory. Graduate student goalkeeper Michael Grace got the win in goal to even his record at 2-2. He allowed three goals while stopping 11 shots. Wells allowed five goals and had five saves in the fourth quarter.

Matt Lalli suffered the loss in goal for Florida Southern, stopping seven shots while allowing 17 goals. Dyer led the Mocs' offense with four goals and an assist.

Florida Southern outshot Mercyhurst (48-43), held an advantage in ground balls (40-32), and won 18 of the 30 faceoffs. Mercyhurst, however, forced Florida Southern into 23 turnovers on the night.

The Lakers will square off against the University of Tampa on Saturday, March 14. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.