Five unanswered goals in the second half pushed Wingate University to an 8-6 victory over Tusculum College in a South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse matchup Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (10-5, 7-1 SAC) trailed 4-3 in the third quarter before scoring five consecutive goals in a span of 15 minutes to take an 8-4 lead early in the final period. Eight different players scored goals in the victory for Wingate, which twice scored in the final 10 seconds of a quarter and also had goals seven seconds apart in the fourth quarter.

The Pioneers (4-9, 3-5 SAC) received three goals from Dallas Wade and two goals from Nate Wade and played the Bulldogs nearly even across the board. Wingate finished with slim advantages of 34-33 in shots and 33-32 in ground balls, while each team had 15 turnovers in the contest.

Tusculum took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Dallas Wade five minutes into the first quarter, but a goal from Wingate's Kenan Reed tied the score at 1-1 90 seconds later. Nate Wade responded two minutes later for a 2-1 Pioneer lead, but goals from Daniel Godwin and Jeremy Sullivan, the latter with two seconds left, put Wingate in front 3-2 at the end of one quarter.

Chris Ryan scored the only goal of the second quarter off an assist from Tyler Klarner, sending the teams to halftime knotted 3-3. Nate Wade's second goal of the game gave the Pioneers the lead at 4-3 with 13:08 remaining in the third quarter, but a goal from Wingate's RJ Neal tied the game about two minutes later. The Bulldogs took the lead for good as Andrew Gobble scored with six seconds remaining in the quarter, to go on top 5-4 heading into the final frame.

The Bulldogs went ahead 6-4 just 13 seconds into the fourth quarter on a goal from James Thatcher, then Ryan Ormerod and Wyatt Weiseman scored seven seconds apart to extend the Wingate lead to 8-4 with 10:52 left. Tusculum tried to come back as Dallas Wade scored with 5:18 left and again with 1:41 to play to bring the Pioneers within 8-6, but the Bulldogs were able to run out the clock.

Ross Parsons led the Tusculum defense with five ground balls, with four apiece from Ethan Merrow and Dallas Wade. Parsons also had two caused turnovers for the Pioneers. Wingate received a team-high five ground balls from Thatcher and four from Weiseman, while Sean Moran had a team-best three caused turnovers.

Kevin Haggerty reached double figures again in saves for the Pioneers, making 14 stops, while Jacob Ormerod had 16 saves for the Bulldogs, divided equally between the halves.

Tusculum has earned the first SAC Tournament berth in the program's three-year history, and will play at Coker on Tuesday in a quarterfinal matchup. Game time will be announced later this weekend.