GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Lenoir-Rhyne University received goals from 16 different players in a 20-3 victory over Tusculum College in the first South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse match for both schools Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
The Bears (2-2, 1-0 SAC) outshot the Pioneers (3-1, 0-1 SAC) by a 41-22 margin and forced the Pioneers into 26 turnovers en route to the victory. Lenoir-Rhyne led 8-1 at halftime and outscored Tusculum 12-2 over the final 30 minutes of action. Ned Kaish had three goals and two assists to lead the Bears, while Cole Abourjilie and Sam Ashton each had two goals and an assist.
Tusculum received goals from Ezra Cason, Jack Timerson and Mitch Chapman in the setback, which came after wins over Ohio Valley, Lees-McRae and Young Harris in the first three matches in program history.
Kaish contributed to each of the Bears' first four goals with two goals and two assists, including a goal just before the horn at the end of the first quarter which gave Lenoir-Rhyne a 3-0 lead. Tusculum got on the scoreboard with 8:42 left in the second quarter on a goal from Cason, but the Bears scored four unanswered to go to intermission with an 8-1 lead.
Lenoir-Rhyne led 9-1 when Timerson scored for the Pioneers with 13:01 to play in the third quarter, but five different players scored goals for the Bears to close out the quarter and send Lenoir-Rhyne to a 14-2 lead heading into the final period.
The Bears scored six of the seven goals in the third quarter, interrupted only when Chapman scored with the man advantage off a feed from Darrin Wilson with 11:53 remaining.
Tusculum picked up 21 ground balls in the game, led by four each from Chapman, Cason and Jake Smith. Chapman also had three of the Pioneers' four caused turnovers. At the faceoff dot, Alexander Kleinberg won seven of the 14 draws he took while Michael Graziano was 3-for-5.
For the Bears, Fred Waddle had a game-high six ground balls and was 4-for-8 on faceoffs, with Robert Links adding four ground balls. Ryan Wing was 9-for-16 on faceoffs as the Bears won 13 of the 24 draws in the match.
As a team, Tusculum was 1-for-5 with the man advantage while Lenoir-Rhyne went 0-for-2. The Bears were successful on all 26 of their clear attempts, and forced the Pioneers into nine failed clears in 23 chances.
John Perrucci played all 60 minutes in goal for the Pioneers and accumulated 11 saves, while action in the Bears net was split between starter Alex Squires (one save) and Steven McGhee (10 saves).
The Pioneers will return to non-conference action Tuesday night when they host Post University at Pioneer Field, beginning at 7 p.m.
- TC -
