GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tristan Kirkham scored the tiebreaking goal with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter as Tusculum University rallied from an early three-goal deficit to defeat Colorado State-Pueblo 9-7 in men's lacrosse action Saturday at Pioneer Field.
Sean Dunn and Wesley Phillips each had two goals and two assists and Nate Raymond finished with two goals and an assist for the Pioneers (1-0), who won their season opener for the fourth consecutive season. Will Cookman scored an insurance goal with 2:03 left for the Pioneers, who went 2-for-3 with the man advantage and overcame 32 turnovers of their own by forcing CSU-Pueblo into 28 turnovers.
Lane Lessley led the ThunderWolves (0-1) with two goals, Logan Naves had a goal and three assists and Ian Noonan had three assists for CSU-Pueblo, which was 0-for-4 in man-up situations and was shut out in the second and fourth quarters by the Tusculum defense.
CSU-Pueblo outshot Tusculum 11-4 in the first quarter, and took a 2-0 lead after six minutes on goals from Chris Easley and Lessley. Dunn got the Pioneers on the board with 4:33 left in the period, but a goal from Trevor Thompson with 3:38 remaining and a tally from Naves with one second left gave the ThunderWolves a 4-1 lead after one quarter.
The second quarter was all Tusculum as the Pioneers had a 17-3 advantage in shots. Raymond cut the CSU-Pueblo lead to 4-2 with 5:03 left in the half, Phillips brought the Pioneers within 4-3 with 3:48 left, and goal from Kirkham with 1:24 to play knotted the game at 4-4 heading to intermission.
Tusculum netted a pair of man-up goals to start the third quarter, as Phillips assisted Dunn on the go-ahead goal with 13:46 left and Dunn returned the favor less than two minutes later for a 6-4 Pioneer lead. Raymond stretched the Tusculum lead to 7-4 with 10:57 to play in the third quarter before Kaleb Mantai snapped the ThunderWolves' drought with 9:05 left in the period. CSU-Pueblo would tie the game in the final five minutes of the quarter on goals from Lessley and Kevin Gallagher.
Both teams had seven shot attempts in the fourth quarter, but the Pioneers were able to go ahead on Kirkham's second of the game with 6:41 to play. With both teams down a man, the Pioneers got their key insurance goal as Jordan Daniel delivered a pass to a cutting Cookman, who buried his first goal since 2020 with 2:03 to go. The Pioneers would turn the ball over five times in the final two minutes following Cookman's goal, but the ThunderWolves could not break through the Tusculum defense and put just one shot on goal.
Phillips and Tyler Nunenmacher shared the team lead with five ground balls for the Pioneers, with four ground balls and two caused turnovers by Nicholas Drennan and three ground balls and two caused turnovers from Nolan Ross. CSU-Pueblo was led by six ground balls from Corey Healy, while Naves and Noonan had five ground balls each.
On faceoffs, Aaron Fabelo led Tusculum by going 7-for-13 with three ground balls, while Bryce Campbell was 9-for-17 with two ground balls for CSU -Pueblo. The ThunderWolves had a 10-8 advantage at the faceoff dot as a team.
Riley Semmes finished with 10 saves in goal for the Pioneers, with Ethan Ferrie making nine saves for the ThunderWolves but just two in the second half after making seven stops in the first half.
Tusculum will travel to Chowan to face the Hawks on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m.
