POWELLS POINT, N.C. – Once again, Justin LaRue was Justin LaRue. The senior put together a huge round for Longwood men's golf to take the lead OBX Intercollegiate on Monday.
 
LaRue fired a seven-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds with one to play.
 
NOTABLE RESULTS:
 
Longwood moved up into eighth behind a 286 that was 12 strokes better than the opening round, but the story of the round was LaRue.
 
After tying the team record with a 63 in his the third and final round of the Phoenix Invitational last week, he surged up the leaderboard in the second round of the OBX.
 
In a stunning start, he birdied seven of his first eight holes, and he finished the round with eight birdies to card a seven-under 71 for a two-round score of 71-64—135 (-7).
 
On the back nine, he posted eight straight pars before finishing his round with a birdie, which gave him a one-stroke lead over Barnes Blake out of Georgetown, who had posted a 65 on the day.
 
The other four golfers also had solid starts to round two, but the back nine proved to be a hard challenge to climb. Scott Jordan fired a two-over 73 to move into a tie for 53^rd. Nick Fleming was one-under through nine holes and finished with a three-over 74 to move into a tie for 49^th.
 
Cameron Hardison sits tied for 28^th following a four-over 75, and Hunter Swidzinski matched him with a four-over 75 to be tied for 57^th.
 
The Lancers sit six shots back of Drake in seventh and eight shots back of a three-way tie for fourth between Saint Joseph's (PA), Omaha and Murray State.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"Our goal for today was to work ourselves back into the golf tournament, and we knew we were more than capable of posting a really low round that would have met that goal," said Longwood Head Coach Kevin Fillman. "Early on, I believe we were doing what we intended, but, midway or a little better through, we lost the momentum we had built and began to lose shots. Holes three through seven are difficult, and every player in the field knows he needs to take advantage of the holes that are played either before or after those holes. Since we played those holes later in the round, we did a pretty good job of banking birdies before getting to that stretch. Unfortunately, we lost more shots than the number of birdies made, so it kind of turned what could have been a really good round into a so-so round."
 
"Obviously, Justin was crazy good again," Fillman added. "It's really hard to describe how well he's played the past week. Our goal for tomorrow is to go win the round. When that happens, there's still a number of teams we can move past."

FULL RESULTS:

8. Longwood: 298-286--584 (+16)

1. Justin LaRue: 71-64--135 (-7)
T28. Cameron Hardison: 71-75--149 (+4)
T49. Nick Fleming: 77-74--151 (+9)
T53. Scott Jordan: 79-73--152 (+10)
T57. Hunter Swidzinski: 81-75--156 (+14)
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood tees off for the final round on Tuesday morning. It will be the team's final round of the fall before returning to action in the spring.
 
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