YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. --- A first-quarter scoring surge powered Young Harris College to a 19-10 victory over Tusculum University in non-conference men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon.
The Mountain Lions (1-1) scored eight times in the first quarter to erase an early 3-1 deficit against the Pioneers (0-1), led by Tommy Chriszt who had five goals and four assists. Grady Stokes finished with three goals and two assists as Young Harris outshot Tusculum by a 54-23 margin.
Jayden Thomas led the Pioneers with four goals, with two goals and an assist from Clay Mendez and two goals from Tysen Fontenla. Ben Royer added a goal and three assists, Aidan Villao had a goal and Luke Bowen assisted on a pair of goals for the Pioneers.
Mendez, Thomas and Fontenla all scored in the first seven minutes as Tusculum led 3-1 midway through the first quarter. However, Young Harris would score five goals in just under three minutes to go up 6-3 with 4:32 left in the opening quarter.
The Mountain Lions scored all four goals in the second quarter to build a 12-4 lead at halftime, and tallied the first three goals of the third quarter before Thomas broke the run with 8:48 to go in the third quarter. Tusculum outscored Young Harris 6-4 over the final 25 minutes, including the final three goals of the match after the Mountain Lions took a 19-7 lead early in the fourth.
Drake Vance led the Pioneers with four ground balls, with two apiece for Jamie Thomson, Blake Harrison, Aiden Lyman and Sam Sergio. Evan Anderson was 21-for-28 on faceoffs and collected 16 ground balls for Young Harris, with four ground balls for Chriszt. Ben Soenen and David Traywick had three caused turnovers apiece as the Mountain Lions forced 21 Pioneer turnovers.
Brenden Pecora had 13 saves in goal for the Pioneers, with Garrett Smith making four saves in the final six minutes. Thomas Castiglia had seven saves for the Mountain Lions, who were 3-for-10 with the man advantage while the Pioneers were 1-for-5 with the extra man.
The Pioneers will play their home opener on Saturday, Feb. 15 at noon against Virginia State at Pioneer Field.
