GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Lincoln Memorial scored five man-up goals in seven chances, including two apiece by Craig Settles and Kyle Arcuri, as the Railsplitters defeated Tusculum University 19-14 in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action Wednesday night at Pioneer Field.
Joe Conklin scored five goals and Ian Cook had four goals and two assists for the Railsplitters (4-9, 2-5 SAC), who outshot the Pioneers 54-30 for the match and 29-10 in the second half. Settles and Arcuri each had two goals and two assists and Reggie Golfin finished with three goals and an assist for LMU in the win.
Keegan Bell scored five goals and had an assist to set program single-season records for goals (41) and points (56). Bell broke the records of 39 goals and 52 points set by Ben Boyd in 2017. Nate Raymond and Lorenz Brown had two goals apiece for the Pioneers, Liam Macdonald had four assists and AJ Hems had a goal and three assists, but eight Tusculum penalties allowed LMU to net three straight man-up goals in the second quarter and two more in the fourth. The Pioneers (6-5, 2-4 SAC) were also strong with the man advantage, converting on three of their four opportunities.
Lincoln Memorial opened the scoring with 11:55 left in the first quarter on a goal by Chris Tucker, but Tusculum rattled off four goals in a row with two from Bell and one each from Charles Mills and Kale Lawrence, to go up 4-1 with 3:42 left in the first quarter. Golfin scored twice in 24 seconds for the Railsplitters as the Pioneers took a 4-3 lead into the second quarter.
Two more goals from Bell, the second his school-record 40th of the season, extended the Tusculum lead to 6-3 with 14:06 left in the first half. LMU then scored six goals in a span of 5 minutes, 16 seconds, including man-up goals from Conklin, Settles and Cook in a 79-second stretch, to go up 9-7 with 8:16 left in the second quarter. The Pioneers then scored three straight goals as Raymond, Sean Dunn and Brown teamed to push the Pioneers back ahead 10-9 with 3:58 left in the half. Tucker's second of the game tied the game at 10-10 with 2:19 remaining and the teams carried the deadlock into intermission.
The Railsplitters scored the first three goals of the third quarter in a span of just under two minutes to go ahead 13-10, as Conklin scored twice in 54 seconds, but goals from Bell and Brown helped the Pioneers claw back within 13-12 with 9:27 left in the quarter. An exchange of goals by Conklin and Raymond kept the LMU lead at 14-13 with 4:16 to go in the quarter, but from there the Railsplitters would score five of the final six goals. Tusculum's only goal in the final quarter came from Jordan Daniel with 6:50 left to bring Tusculum within 18-14.
On defense, Joel Edgar had a team-high seven ground balls and came up with a pair of caused turnovers for the Pioneers. Daniel finished with four ground balls and Addie Wilkins had three to go along with a 12-for-24 performance on faceoffs. The Railsplitters received seven ground balls from Arcuri and from Hunter Clark, who was 22-for-36 on faceoffs in the match.
Lincoln Memorial was successful on 10-of-14 clear attempts and Tusculum was 11-for-15 as a team. LMU turned the ball over 12 times in the match and Tusculum finished with 11 turnovers, while the Railsplitters won 23 of the 38 faceoffs.
Tusculum goalkeeper Ross Geiger finished with 13 saves, and LMU goalkeeper Trenton Cameron had six saves as the Pioneers had just 20 shots on goal in the match.
The Pioneers will travel to Wingate to face the 15th-ranked Bulldogs on Saturday at 1 p.m.
