HARROGATE, Tenn. --- Nate Raymond scored five goals to reach 50 goals for the season and Tusculum University used 11 third-quarter goals to pull away for a 19-10 victory over Lincoln Memorial University in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action Wednesday afternoon.
Kale Lawrence had four goals to reach 100 points for his career, Wesley Phillips had another big game with four goals and three assists, and Lorenz Brown scored four goals and an assist for the Pioneers (9-5, 3-5 SAC), who also received two goals and three assists from Jordan Daniel and three assists from Tristan Kirkham in the victory.
Rhodes Conroy had six goals to lead the Railsplitters (4-10, 1-6 SAC) while Francis O'Hara had a goal and two assists. Tusculum outshot Lincoln Memorial 42-37 and went 3-for-3 with the man advantage, including two during a 10-1 run in the third quarter that turned an 8-6 Pioneer lead into a commanding 18-7 edge heading to the fourth.
Raymond, who became the program single-season goal leader on Saturday against Coker, scored twice in the first quarter, once in the second and two more times in the third to reach an even 50 goals for the season. Lawrence netted all four of his goals in a span of three minutes, 46 seconds during Tusculum's third-quarter outburst, enabling him to become the eighth player in program history to reach 100 points. Raymond is fourth in program history with 91 goals while Lawrence is sixth all-time with 78 goals.
Brown stretched his streak of consecutive games with a goal to 23 with his four-goal performance, and extended his school record of consecutive games with a point to 30 in a row. Raymond has scored a goal in 24 straight games for the Pioneers, and moved into a tie for the SAC lead in goals. Daniel is up to 96 career points (40 goals, 56 assists) and is four points shy of becoming the ninth member of the Tusculum 100-point club. Tusculum has set single-season program records for goals (201) and man-up goals (30) with two games remaining in the regular season.
Ross Geiger finished with 15 saves in goal for Tusculum to become the first goalkeeper in program history to reach 500 career saves. Geiger, who has 513 career saves, leads the SAC with 187 saves and is two away from tying Kevin Haggerty, who made 189 saves during the 2016 season to hold the single-season record.
Tusculum went up 1-0 after 37 seconds on a goal from Raymond, but Conroy tied the game at 1-1 for the Railsplitters just over a minute later. The Pioneers went up 2-1 on a goal by Phillips just under 2 1/2 minutes into the game, and took a 4-2 lead on goals from Raymond and Brown. Conroy's second of the day cut the Tusculum lead to 4-3 after one quarter.
The Pioneers went ahead 5-3 as Raymond scored seven seconds into the second quarter following a faceoff win by Andy Michalski, and built the lead to 6-3 following a goal from Brown with 12:14 left in the half. Lincoln Memorial would pull within 6-5 on goals from Aiden Smith and Hunter Kot, but a man-up goal from Daniel with 3:22 remaining sent Tusculum to halftime with a 7-5 advantage.
The third quarter would be all Pioneers, with Phillips opening the scoring 59 seconds into the period. A goal from O'Hara cut the Tusculum lead to 8-6 with 12:54 left in the third, but Tusculum would score seven goals in the next 5 1/2 minutes including three from Lawrence, two by Raymond and once each from Daniel and Brown to go ahead 15-6 with 6:31 left in the third quarter. Conroy would snap the run with a goal with 6:09 left in the quarter, but Lawrence, Brown and Phillips netted goals in a 2 1/2 minute span to give Tusculum an 18-7 lead heading to the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, Conroy would score all three of the Railsplitters goals surrounding a goal from Phillips with 10:35 left that would wrap up the scoring for the Pioneers. Conroy's sixth goal of the day came with 4:05 remaining and would set the final score at 19-10.
Michalski won 16 faceoffs in 33 attempts and had seven ground balls for the Pioneers, while Sean Dunn had three ground balls along with a pair of assists. For Lincoln Memorial, Haden Berry went 17-for-31 on faceoffs and collected six ground balls, while Logan Wilson had two ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers. Hunter Rinehart had 14 saves in goal for the Railsplitters.
Tusculum finished the game 26-for-32 on clears, while Lincoln Memorial was 20-for-29. The Railsplitters committed 24 turnovers as a team, 12 in each half, while the Pioneers had 23 turnovers in the contest. Tusculum, which leads Division II in extra-man percentage at 55.6 percent (30-for-54), has converted five straight opportunities over the past three games.
Tusculum will visit Catawba on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Indians are tied for fourth in the SAC at 4-3 following a 10-9 victory at Coker on Wednesday.
