Bryan Crim scored his fourth goal of the game with 2:57 left in
the second overtime period as Walsh University rallied from a
five-goal deficit to defeat Tusculum College 10-9 in non-conference
men's lacrosse action Tuesday afternoon.
Crim's goal came after the Cavaliers (2-3) trailed the Pioneers by
a 7-2 halftime score and by 8-3 early in the third quarter. Crim
scored three of his goals during Walsh's second-half surge, with
Ryan Martin adding a pair including the tying goal with 10:14 left
in the fourth quarter. Alex Hudgens had a goal and four assists for
the Cavaliers in the victory.
Chris Ryan led the Pioneers (1-4) with three goals while Tyler
Klarner had two goals and an assist, but Tusculum was outshot 23-10
in the second half and 4-2 in overtime as Walsh mounted its
comeback effort. Dallas Wade, Keegan Bell, Ben Boyd and Charles
Mills also had goals for the Pioneers in the contest.
Mills and Ryan scored quickly in the first four minutes to give the
Pioneers a 2-0 lead, with Boyd and Klarner adding goals to extend
the Tusculum advantage to 4-0 with just over nine minutes played in
the first quarter. Two goals from the Cavaliers late in the first
quarter cut the Pioneer advantage in half, but Tusculum outscored
Walsh 3-0 in the second quarter as Ryan, Klarner and Wade pushed
the Pioneers in front 7-2 at the half.
In the third quarter, a man-up goal from Ryan gave the Pioneers an
8-3 lead with 11:55 left, but goals a minute apart from Hudgens and
Crim and one in the final 30 seconds from Martin helped Walsh pull
within 8-6 entering the fourth quarter.
Crim and Brydan Heisler came through with goals 52 seconds apart to
tie the game 8-8 with 13:41 remaining, but Bell restored the
Pioneer lead with 10:44 left. However, Martin scored with 10:14
left to even the contest at 9-9, and the Cavaliers outshot the
Pioneers 8-2 the rest of the way. Tusculum nearly scored the game
winner with 4 1/2 minutes left, but Boyd hit the post on a
shot.
In the first overtime, the Cavaliers had the first three shot
attempts but could not score, while the Pioneers had two chances in
the closing seconds but were unsuccessful. In the second overtime,
Walsh won the faceoff and Crim scored with 1:03 elapsed to give the
Cavaliers the win.
Walsh outshot Tusculum 43-33 in the game and had a 27-16 advantage
in ground balls. The Cavaliers won 15 of the game's 23 faceoffs and
were 3-for-6 with the man up, while the Pioneers were 1-for-4 on
extra-man opportunities.
On defense, Tusculum was led by Jake Smith who had five ground
balls and two caused turnovers and won six faceoffs. Ross Parsons
added three ground balls and Sean Kidder had a pair of caused
turnovers. Walsh's Ryan Rafac was 15-for-23 on draws and collected
12 ground balls to lead all players in the game.
Tusculum goalkeeper Kevin Haggerty, the reigning South Atlantic
Conference Defensive Player of the Week, had 11 saves in goal for
the Pioneers including five in the second half and overtime
combined. Dylan Ciolino finished with eight saves for the
Cavaliers.
The Pioneers play their fifth consecutive road game on Saturday at
Emmanuel, with game time scheduled for 2 p.m. from Franklin
Springs, Georgia in the first meeting between the schools.