GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College men's lacrosse team scored the first goals of the game and the last five of the contest as the Pioneers defeated visiting Young Harris College 13-5 Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Field in the season-finale for both teams.

Ben Boyd led the Pioneers (5-8) with three goals, while Nate Wade accounted for two goals and two assists for the Black & Orange.

Mitch Chapman contributed two goals and an assist, and senior Jack Timerson posted a goal and two assists in his collegiate finale.

YHC's Jayden Campbell led the Mountain Lions (9-7) with three goals and an assist, while Michael Gernatt added a goal and two assists and Billy Magill finished with a scoring tally.

Tusculum goalie Kevin Haggerty tallied nine saves in going the distance in goal. YHC starting keeper posted five saves in the first half, while Sean Dever tallied three stops in the final two quarters.

The Pioneers jumped out to 5-0 lead in the first quarter as senior Sean Gilbane scored 1:31 into the contest. Chris Ryan notched his team-leading 26th goal of the year at the 12:02 mark of the frame and Nate Wade followed with an unassisted goal at the 9:06 mark of the quarter.

Timerson posted his fourth goal of the season and 15th of his career for a 4-0 TC lead. Chapman capped the scoring onslaught with a man-up goal with 6:40 left in the quarter.

Young Harris answered with back-to-back goals from Campbell, his 29th and 30th of the season, including his goal with 57 seconds left in the quarter.

Boyd scored the first of his two goals at the 11:57 mark of the second quarter for a 6-2 TC advantage. After Gernatt trimmed the deficit to 6-3 with his 13th goal of the season, Boyd capped the first half scoring with his second goal of the game with 10 seconds remaining before halftime as TC lead 7-3 at the break.

Young Harris cut the deficit back to three on two occasions, including 8-5 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter on Campbell's 31st goal of the year.

The Pioneers put the game out of reach with five unanswered goals in the last 10 minutes to provide the final margin of victory.

Tusculum out-shot YHC by a 33-29 margin while the Mountain Lions owned a 30-26 advantage in ground balls.

TC's Alexander Kleinberg recorded eight wins in the faceoff dot and posted a team-best five ground balls.

The Pioneers showed marked improvement in his second season of men's lacrosse at Tusculum. TC matched last year's record (5-8), but posted a two-win improvement in conference victories. Last season, three games were decided by two goals or less, while this year's squad played in six contests decided by two or fewer goals.

Saturday marked the final collegiate games for Gilbane, Timerson, Fernandes, Thomas Loudon, Steven Raimondi and Tyler Schaefer.

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