HARTSVILLE, S.C. --- Tusculum University scored the first nine goals and went on to earn a 13-9 victory over Coker University in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action Friday afternoon.
The Pioneers (6-4, 3-4 SAC) led 10-1 at halftime and 13-4 entering the fourth quarter, before the Cobras (3-6, 1-5 SAC) scored five unanswered goals to cut the final margin to four.
Jordan Daniel led the Pioneers with three goals and two assists, with Kale Lawrence adding three goals and Lorenz Brown contributing two goals and an assist. Nate Raymond scored a pair of goals for the Pioneers, with one goal apiece from Sean Dunn, Tristan Kirkham and Luke Doehring.
Henry Haskett and Andrew Dappen each had two goals and an assist for the Cobras, with Joe Venezio adding a goal and three assists. Coker outshot Tusculum 16-4 in the fourth quarter, but the Pioneers finished the match with a 47-37 advantage in shots over the Cobras. Tusculum won 17 of the match's 25 faceoffs, and the Pioneers forced the Cobras into 21 turnovers as a team.
Lawrence began the scoring surge for the Pioneers with the opening goal of the match just 3:47 into the first quarter. Daniel gave the Pioneers a 2-0 lead with 9:02 to play in the quarter, then Lawrence and Raymond scored 31 seconds apart to stretch the Pioneers' lead to 4-0 with 3:55 left in the period. Daniel and Brown then scored 34 seconds apart in the latter stages of the quarter as Tusculum took a 6-0 lead after one.
In the second quarter, the Pioneers stretched their lead to 9-0 as Kirkham and Daniel scored in the first three minutes of the period, followed by Dunn with 5:13 left in the half. Coker finally got on the board with 2:25 remaining in the half on a goal by Richie Timothee, but Lawrence scored with five seconds left to send the Pioneers to intermission with a 10-1 lead.
Brown scored with the man advantage just over three minutes into the third quarter for an 11-1 Tusculum lead, and Doehring made it 12-1 with 6:23 to go. The Cobras struck for three goals in 47 seconds from Dappen, Jason McNeany and Haskett to trim the Pioneer lead to 12-4 with 2:40 left in the quarter, but Raymond scored with exactly two minutes remaining to give Tusculum a 13-4 lead heading to the fourth.
The final quarter was all Coker, as Dappen and Ethan Irizarry scored 32 seconds apart to make it 13-6 Tusculum with 12:05 to play. Goals from Tre Childers and Venazio brought the Cobras within 13-8 with 4:02 to go, and Haskett closed the scoring with 1:52 remaining.
Nathan Fraser finished 11-for-16 on faceoffs and had a team-high 10 ground balls for the Pioneers, while Connor Coleman had three ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers. For Coker, McNeany was just 7-for-22 on faceoffs but collected a team-best six ground balls.
Both teams were called for four penalties, and each finished 1-for-4 with the man advantage. Tusculum was successful on 15-of-20 clear attempts while Coker was 14-for-18 on clears.
In goal, Ross Geiger finished with 11 saves for the Pioneers while Chris Hagy made 16 saves for the Cobras, including 11 in the first half as Tusculum outshot Coker 29-13 in the opening 30 minutes.
The Pioneers will return home to host Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday, April 7 at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Field.
