GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Keegan Bell scored six goals for the second time in four days and Liam Macdonald added four goals and three assists to lead Tusculum University to a 22-12 victory over Barton College in non-conference men's lacrosse action Saturday at Pioneer Field.
AJ Hems, Jordan Daniel, Kale Lawrence, Nate Raymond and Sean Dunn had two goals apiece for the Pioneers (5-1) who matched a program record with their fifth consecutive victory. Tusculum won 30 of the 38 faceoffs against Barton and controlled ground balls by a 53-23 margin.
Bodin Nichols led the Bulldogs (1-7) with four goals and Jonathan Schmidt scored twice, but the Pioneers took command with a 10-goal second quarter and finished the game with a 55-36 advantage in shots over the Bulldogs.
Bell's six goals give him the South Atlantic Conference lead in both goals (25) and points (35), while Macdonald's three assists boosted his season total to 19, the most in the SAC this year and a new school single-season record. Dallas Wade held the previous mark of 18 assists during the 2017 season.
Bell scored three goals in a row to help Tusculum to a 4-0 lead after eight minutes, but Barton replied with three straight goals from Nichols, Jake Copio and Schmidt to pull within 4-3 at the end of one quarter. Tusculum then poured home 10 goals on 19 shots in the second quarter to match the program record for goals in a single quarter, set in the first quarter of the first home game in school history against Lees-McRae on Feb. 19, 2014.
Eight different players scored goals during the second-quarter outburst, with Macdonald and Bell netting a pair apiece. During the quarter, Tusculum scored twice in 17 seconds, three times in 1 minute, 28 seconds and twice in 31 seconds to build a 14-6 lead at halftime.
Barton cut the Tusculum lead to 15-9 on a goal by Nichols with 7:05 left in the third quarter, but Tusculum answered with four in a row to end the quarter including two in a row by Raymond off assists by Bell, coming in a span of 27 seconds.
The teams played an even fourth quarter as Daniel, Luke Doehring and Hems scored three straight for a 22-11 Pioneer lead with 1:20 to play before the Bulldogs' Ever Amaya closed the scoring with 52 seconds left.
Ethan Bohannon and Andy Michalski teamed up to control the faceoff dot for the Pioneers, with Bohannon winning 11-of-14 with four ground balls and Michalski going 16-for-20 with 10 ground balls. Joel Edgar had six ground balls for the Pioneers with five by Macdonald and four from Josh Pickford.
For the Bulldogs, Nichols and Seth Mandryk shared the team lead with four ground balls, with Marcus Childs contributing a pair of caused turnovers. Barton was 20-for-24 on clear attempts, while Tusculum was successful on 13-of-17 clears.
Both teams were flagged four times, with Barton going 1-for-3 with the extra man and Tusculum finishing 0-for-1. Tusculum had 19 turnovers in the contest, while Barton had 11 turnovers as a team.
Ross Geiger played nearly the entire match for the Pioneers, finishing with 13 saves before giving way to Patrick Thomas for the final 1 minute, 20 seconds. Trevor Wilholt played the first, third and most of the fourth quarter for Barton, making 12 saves, with Matt Stocks (three saves) and Parrish Hinton (one save) also seeing time between the pipes.
Tusculum will head on the road next Saturday, March 16 to face Lenoir-Rhyne in SAC matchup in Hickory, North Carolina.
