GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Nate Raymond scored four goals, including the 100th of his career, and added two assists as Tusculum University defeated Emmanuel College 15-4 in non-conference men's lacrosse action Saturday night at Pioneer Field.
Tristan Kirkham scored three goals and had an assist, Wesley Phillips contributed a goal and three assists and Bryce Grimball, Will Cookman and Jordan Daniel each scored twice for the Pioneers (3-0), who had a slim 39-37 edge in shots over the Lions (0-4) but received a combined 15 saves in goal from Riley Semmes and Diego Hopkins to improve to 3-0 for the third straight season.
Luke Hildebrandt led Emmanuel with a goal and two assists as the Lions went 2-for-4 with the man advantage and won 11 out of 20 faceoffs, but turned the ball over 22 times and missed the target on 18 of their 37 shot attempts.
Raymond's second goal with 4:11 left in the third quarter gave Tusculum an 11-2 lead and made him the third player in program history to reach 100 career goals, joining Ben Boyd (105) and Chris Ryan (100). Raymond would score twice more to increase his career total to 102, putting him second in program history to Boyd's record of 105.
The teams played nearly nine minutes without a goal to start the game before Grimball went coast-to-coast to give Tusculum a 1-0 lead with 6:15 left in the first quarter. Nicholas Drennan and Daniel would follow in the next 4 1/2 minutes as the Pioneers led 3-0 after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Cookman and Kirkham stretched Tusculum's lead to 5-0 in the first four minutes, and Phillips added the Pioneers' sixth goal off a feed from Aiden Caskey with 8:45 to play in the half. Emmanuel would use the man advantage to get its first goal of the night as Devon Roberts converted with 7:43 remaining, but goals from Raymond with 2:44 left and Kirkham in the final three seconds would push the Pioneers up 8-1 at halftime.
Grimball scored his second off Caskey's second assist just under three minutes into the third quarter, but Adam Gallop answered 30 seconds later for the Lions to leave the Pioneers on top 9-2. Cookman would net his second of the game with 9:29 left, just ahead of Raymond's 100th goal with 4:11 to play, but Tanner Park scored with under five seconds left in the quarter as the Pioneers led 11-3 heading to the final 15 minutes.
The Pioneers would break the game open as Raymond and Daniel scored in the opening five minutes of the fourth to give Tusculum a 13-3 lead. Kirkham fed Raymond for a man-up goal with 6:46 remaining and scored one of his own with 5:10 remaining to stretch Tusculum's lead to 15-3. Hildebrandt would convert with the man advantage with 3:16 to go to close the scoring.
In addition to his two goals, Grimball had four ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers for the Pioneers. Devin Bowen added four ground balls on defense for Tusculum, while Tyler Nunenmacher had two caused turnovers. For Emmanuel, Adam Wright had a team-high five ground balls with four apiece from Gallop and Brooks Butalla.
Tusculum was 1-for-4 with the man advantage and had 26 successful clears in 31 attempts, along with just seven turnovers in the second half after committing 11 miscues in the opening half.
Semmes played the first three quarters in goal for the Pioneers and made a career-high 12 saves, with Hopkins adding three saves in the fourth quarter. Matt Pesek played all 60 minutes between the pipes for the Lions and had 12 saves in the match.
The Pioneers will open their South Atlantic Conference schedule on Saturday, Feb. 25 with a visit to Wingate beginning at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs, ranked seventh in the latest USILA Division II poll, improved to 2-1 with a 19-10 win at Mount Olive on Saturday.
