GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Lincoln Memorial University defeated Tusculum University 12-9 in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse Wednesday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
Rhodes Conroy scored four goals and had an assist for the Railsplitters (3-8, 1-6 SAC), who outshot the Pioneers 50-35. Gavin Reed, Koen Burdette and Alex Winters each scored two goals for Lincoln Memorial, which never trailed in the match but did not build its largest lead of five goals until the fourth quarter.
Ben Royer had three goals and two assists for the Pioneers and Luke Bowen added three goals and an assist for Tusculum (3-9, 0-7 SAC), which had 27 turnovers in the contest and lost the faceoff battle by an 18-6 margin. Ben Hobday had a goal and an assist and Clay Mendez and Tysen Fontenla also had goals for the Pioneers.
The teams exchanged three goals apiece over the first 13 minutes, before Lincoln Memorial went up 5-3 on goals from Conroy and Winters in the final 1:11 of the opening quarter. In the second quarter, Conroy scored twice to stretch the Railsplitters' lead to 7-3, and Conroy tacked on his fourth with five seconds left to give LMU a 9-5 lead at halftime.
Tusculum pulled within 9-6 on a goal from Fontenla with 9:10 left in the third quarter, but Lincoln Memorial would score for the third time in the final 10 seconds of a period as Reid tallied with nine seconds on the clock to put the Railsplitters ahead 10-6. Two late goals from Hobday and Royer in the fourth quarter cut the Tusculum deficit to 12-9, but Lincoln Memorial was able to kill off most of the final four minutes.
Hobday, Jayden Thomas and Ezequel Ceant each had three ground balls for the Pioneers, while Haden Berry had six ground balls and was 13-for-17 on faceoffs for the Railsplitters. John Lombel added three ground balls and three caused turnovers for LMU, which picked up 40 ground balls to 28 for Tusculum.
The Railsplitters were 2-for-5 with the man advantage and finished 18-for-24 on clears, with the Pioneers failing on both its extra-man chances and going 20-for-34 on clear attempts.
Brenden Pecora finished with a season-high 19 saves for the Pioneers, with Jayden Herman collecting 10 saves for the Railsplitters.
Tusculum will travel to Coker to face the Cobras on Sunday, April 6 at 3 p.m. The Cobras lost 15-4 at home to Newberry on Wednesday to drop to 5-7 overall and 2-4 in the SAC.
