BALTIMORE – Evan James and Aidan Olmstead each had career-high days Saturday, scoring five goals apiece as the No. 11 Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse team beat the University of Utah, 20-8, at Ridley Athletic Complex.
 
Olmstead added three assists to set a career-best with eight points, while James had one and also had a career-high six points.
 
The duo was two of four Greyhounds who had hat tricks in the game as Kevin Lindley and Riley Seay each tallied three. Peter Swindell had a multi-point game, too, as he posted a goal and two assists.
 
Defensively, Loyola (2-1 overall) limited the Utes (1-3) to just 30 shots and no player scored more than one goal in the game. The Greyhounds had a 30-23 ground ball advantage with Matt Hughes' five leading the way. Cam Wyers caused three turnovers and had two ground balls, and Ryan McNulty posted an assist and had four ground balls and a caused turnover.
 
Loyola jumped out to a 4-0 lead less than 11 minutes into the game as James scored two of the first three, wrapped around a Seth Higgins tally. Seay then added a goal after a shot fake and bouncer, pushing the advantage to four with 4:02 on the clock.
 
The Utes, however, scored on the next faceoff and then added another goal a minute later to get within 4-2 at the end of the stanza.
 
James secured his second-straight hat trick 2:56 into the second quarter before Utah tallied an extra-man goal by Peter Hagan, a score that came at 10:55 would be its last of the first half.
 
Lindley had his first of the day, followed by two Olmstead tallies at 6:55 and 3:22. The trio of unassisted goals gave the Greyhounds an 8-3 cushion at the break.
 
Utah quickly closed the gap to three as Josh Rose and Branden Wilson scored in the second half's first three minutes, but two more Olmstead goals quickly got the lead to 10-5. He recorded his first off an extra-man pass by Swindell, and he then used a James feed to score the second at 5:02.
 
M.J. McMcMahon's low-to-low goal with 4:18 on the third-quarter clock got the Utes to within 10-6, but James scored his fourth off McNulty's assist to start a 10-1 Greyhounds run.
 
Adam Poitras and Adam Wagner were among those who added goals during the run, while Riley Cox, Will Sherwood and Najee Taylor all had assists. The points for Sherwood and Taylor were both the first of their careers.
 
Sam Shafer had seven saves in goal for the Greyhounds behind a defense that forced 15 Utah turnovers.
 
Loyola will start its 2021 Patriot League campaign on Saturday, March 6, when it heads to Lehigh University for a 1 p.m. game.