GREENWOOD, S.C. --- Lander University defeated Tusculum University 25-6 in non-conference men's lacrosse action Tuesday night.
Adam Mather led the Bearcats (5-2) with four goals and three assists, with three goals apiece from Brandon Perkins and Brady Foote. A total of 14 different players scored for Lander, which outshot Tusculum 63-27 and was perfect on 26 clear attempts.
Nate Raymond scored two goals to tie Liam Macdonald for the Tusculum career record in points with 146, and Tristan Kirkham scored twice for the Pioneers (4-3), who turned the ball over 26 times and won 14 out of 35 faceoffs. Sean Dunn and Aiden Caskey also scored for the Pioneers, who received a pair of assists from Wesley Phillips and one each from Caskey, Will Cookman and Alex Germain.
The Bearcats needed just 26 seconds to open the scoring on a goal by Mather, followed by two goals 29 seconds apart from Kyle DeCrispino for a 3-0 Lander lead with 8:28 remaining in the first quarter. Lander would go up 4-0 on a man-up goal by Jeremy Wudrick with 7:03 to go before Tusculum got on the board as Raymond scored with 6:31 to play in the opening quarter. A goal from Perkins with 3:15 left pushed the Bearcats' lead to 5-1 after one quarter.
Two goals from Mather and one from Perkins in the first four minutes of the second quarter gave Lander an 8-1 lead, with a goal from Kirkham breaking the run with 10:20 to go in the half. Two goals apiece from Nolan Oakey and Foote put the Bearcats up 13-2 with 3:24 remaining, but Caskey got on the board for Tusculum with 2:40 left in the half. Lander would tack on two more goals to carry a 15-3 lead to halftime.
In the third quarter, the Bearcats would receive a pair of man-up goals from Krew Conroy as part of a six-goal run before Dunn got on the board with 1:18 left in the period. Kirkham scored in the fourth quarter for the Pioneers along with Raymond, whose man-up goal with 7:14 left brought him even with Macdonald atop the program career point list.
Devin Bowen led the Pioneers with six ground balls and had a pair of caused turnovers, with five ground balls apiece from Nolan Ross and Bauer Swystun and four ground balls by Dunn. For Lander, Stephen Wilburn and Jake Watson shared the team lead with five ground balls, while Britton Weems had three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Lander was 3-for-5 with the man advantage and Tusculum was 1-for-2 on extra-man opportunities. The Bearcats ended the match with 65 ground balls to 44 for Tusculum, with Watson going 13-for-21 on faceoffs for Lander and Aaron Fabelo finishing 11-for-27 for Tusculum.
Riley Semmes played the first 25 minutes in goal for the Pioneers and had 11 saves, followed by Diego Hopkins who collected eight saves in 35 minutes. Three players shared time in goal for Lander, with Nicholas Paige making five saves in the first half, one by Liam Mackay in the third quarter and two from Rhys Peterson in the fourth.
Tusculum will be on the road to face Coker on Sunday, March 12 at 3 p.m. The Cobras (3-3, 0-1 South Atlantic Conference) have dropped their last two games including a 13-10 loss at Anderson on Saturday in their conference opener.
