GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's lacrosse team will start a stretch of three consecutive home games with a pair of contests this week. The Pioneers host Shorter on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and take on Chowan on Saturday at 1 p.m., both at Pioneer Field.
The Pioneers (1-0) defeated Young Harris 14-7 in their season opener on Wednesday, giving first-year head coach Rodney Tapp a victory in his coaching debut. Tusculum has won its season opener each of the past three seasons, but the Pioneers will attempt on Tuesday to snap a string of three consecutive losses in their first home game of the season.
RECAPPING THE WEEK
Tusculum scored three goals in the final 68 seconds of the first half to break a 3-3 tie, and the Pioneers went on to claim a 14-7 victory over Young Harris Wednesday night. The Pioneers went 2-for-3 on extra-man opportunities and killed off four of the Mountain Lions' five man-up situations in the game, played in rainy conditions on the turf at Young Harris.
Tristan Kirkham scored five goals and added an assist for the Pioneers, with Nate Raymond adding three goals and two assists. Lorenz Brown contributed two goals and an assist, Jordan Daniel scored twice, Andy Michalski had a goal and an assist and Kale Lawrence also scored for the Pioneers, who outshot the Mountain Lions by a 40-22 margin. Ross Geiger made 11 saves in goal for Tusculum in the win.
PROFILING THE PIONEERS
Kirkham's five goals were a career high, surpassing his previous best of three goals done twice last season. The five goals were the most in a game for a Pioneer player since Lawrence scored five times against Quincy on March 10, 2020, and Kirkham's six points were the most since Liam Macdonald had seven points in the Quincy game two years ago.
Both Raymond and Brown extended scoring streaks in the season opener. Raymond scored a goal in his 11th game in a row and earned a point in 14th straight contests. With his two fourth-quarter goals, Brown extended his streak of consecutive games with a goal to 10, and stretched his school-record streak of consecutive games with a points to 17. The Tusculum record for consecutive games with a goal is 13, set by Keegan Bell in 2018-19.
Daniel's two-goal game against Young Harris was the seventh of his career, while Lawrence's goal was his 50th career tally, making him the ninth player in program history to reach 50 career goals. Michalski had nine ground balls, moving him into fourth place on the school career list with 122 as he passed both Ben Boyd (120) and Andrew Kransberger (119).
Geiger claimed his 19th career win between the pipes for the Pioneers, bringing him within two of the career record of 21 goalkeeper victories set by Kevin Haggerty from 2015-17. Geiger, who has started every game of his four-year career, reached double figures in saves for the 17th time in 34 starts against Young Harris.
Tusculum's 27 turnovers against Young Harris in the cold and wet conditions on the turf were the second-most in a game in program history, behind the 29 turnovers committed at Lenoir-Rhyne on Feb. 22, 2015.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Shorter is 1-0 after beating Point 23-6 in their season opener last Tuesday. Jaden Sealey and Ethan Kavanaugh each scored six goals and Kaleb Roehn had a goal and five assists in the win for Shorter, who outshot Point 72-23 and went 20-for-28 on faceoffs. Chase Finley had nine saves in goal while playing the first three quarters.
Shorter finished 2-10 last season, earning wins over LaGrange (7-5) in their season opener and Montreat (10-9). The Hawks have not won more than two games in a season since going 7-7 in 2016. The 20-man roster for the Hawks includes seven freshmen, with midfielder Carson Evans the only senior on the squad.
Tusculum is 3-0 all-time against Shorter, winning 23-6 on the road in 2017, 24-7 at home in 2018 and 20-6 on the road in 2019. Those three victories account for three of the 10 games in program history in which the Pioneers scored 20 goals or more.
Chowan (0-1) lost 17-4 to Lander on Saturday as the visiting Bearcats scored the first 15 goals before the Hawks broke through with 1:35 left in the third quarter. Jaxon Martin scored twice for the Hawks, while Jackson Downs and Eric George each had a goal and an assist. Chowan was outshot 44-25 and went 15-for-26 on clears in the match.
The Hawks were 1-11 last season and 0-6 in Conference Carolinas, claiming their only win in a non-conference match with Wheeling by a 16-6 score on Feb. 21. Chowan has dropped 10 in a row since then and has reached double figures in goals three times over that span.
Tusculum beat Chowan 13-6 on the road on Feb. 14 of last season in the first-ever meeting between the teams. Braden Elam and Brown each had three goals for the Pioneers while George and Downs scored twice each for the Hawks.
FOLLOW THE PIONEERS
Live stats and video are available for home Tusculum University men's lacrosse matches. Links to stats and video for home and away matches are posted at tusculumpioneers.com.
