GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University ran its school-record winning streak to seven games with a 16-9 victory over Mars Hill University in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action at Pioneer Field Saturday afternoon.
The Pioneers (7-0, 1-0 SAC) erased an early two-goal deficit with a seven-goal run and rode the goalkeeping of Ross Geiger in the second half. Geiger, who made a career-high 20 saves in a win at Alabama Huntsville last Saturday, came up with 13 of his 17 saves after halftime against the Lions, including seven stops on eight shots on goal in the fourth quarter.
Wesley Phillips had two goals and five assists for the Pioneers, Kale Lawrence added four goals and two assists and Lorenz Brown scored three times for the Pioneers, who continued the best start to a season in program history. Nate Raymond and Sean Dunn netted a pair of goals, Jordan Daniel had a goal and an assist and Tristan Kirkham and Nicholas Drennan also scored for the Pioneers in the win.
Zac Carrigan, Brandon Woodward and Trevor Kennedy accounted for all of the goals for the Lions (4-2, 0-1 SAC) with three apiece, with two assists from Austin Stroud and one from Carrigan. The Lions were 3-for-5 with the man advantage and had a 17-11 edge in faceoffs, but allowed Tusculum to be successful on 24 of its 25 clear attempts including 20 in a row over the final three quarters. Carrigan, who is tied for the SAC lead in goals with 31, was held to three goals on 16 shot attempts, with Geiger making eight saves on his 11 shots on goal.
Phillips had two goals and two assists during a 7-0 Tusculum run in the first half that turned a 4-2 deficit into a 9-4 lead over a span of 11 minutes. Mars Hill would get no close than three goals in the second half as the Pioneers closed the game with four straight goals after the Lions pulled within 12-9 with just over eight minutes remaining.
Mars Hill darted to a 2-0 lead after eight minutes on goals from Kennedy and Woodward, but the Pioneers drew even at 2-2 as Brown and Dunn scored in a span of 74 seconds. Carrigan would net a pair in less than 90 seconds as Mars Hill went up 4-2 with 1:31 left in the first quarter, but Lawrence scored with 45 seconds left and Phillips beat the clock with just under two seconds left to tie the game at 4-4 after one period.
Tusculum would score the first five goals of the second quarter to open up a 9-4 lead, as goals from Phillips and Daniel sandwiched a man-up tally from Kirkham. Goals from Dunn and Lawrence stretched Tusculum's lead to five with 5:31 left in the half, but Mars Hill would get a man-up goal from Kennedy and one from Woodward to pull within 9-6 at halftime.
Lawrence scored twice in under a minute to give Tusculum an 11-6 lead with 9:31 left in the third quarter, and then Drennan went coast-to-coast with the Pioneers a man down and netted his first career goal to stretch the Pioneers' lead to 12-6 with 6:54 left in the third. Mars Hill would respond with man-up goals from Carrigan and Woodward to cut the Tusculum lead to 12-8 entering the fourth.
The Lions would pull within 12-9 on a goal from Kennedy with 8:05 left, but that would be the end of the offense for Mars Hill as they would have three turnovers and three saved shots by Geiger on their final six possessions. Tusculum would expand its lead as Brown scored 10 seconds after Kennedy's goal, followed by two goals in 19 seconds from Raymond and another from Brown, the last with 2:49 left to close the scoring.
Sharing the team lead in ground balls for the Pioneers with five apiece were Fred Harbinson, Raymond and Andy Michalski, who went 11-for-28 on faceoffs. Drennan added four ground balls for the Pioneers, who had a 36-34 edge in ground balls over the Lions. Mars Hill received seven ground balls from faceoff man Frankie Villeneuve, who was 17-for-28 on faceoffs against Michalski. Carrigan had six ground balls and Andrew Dafoe added four for the Lions.
Mars Hill goalkeeper Steven Smith made 10 saves for the Lions, who were 18-for-22 on clears and killed off two of Tusculum's three extra-man opportunities.
Tusculum will aim to stay undefeated next Saturday when the Pioneers travel to Newberry for a 5 p.m. matchup with the Wolves. Newberry dropped its SAC opener on Saturday with a 16-12 loss to Queens, and will travel to Mount Olive for a non-conference match with the nationally-ranked Trojans on Tuesday before hosting the Pioneers on Saturday.
