FRANKLIN SPRINGS, Ga. --- Ben Royer scored a career-high six goals, including the eventual game-winner with 2:02 remaining, as Tusculum University opened the 2026 season with an 18-17 victory at Emmanuel University in non-conference men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon.
Royer added four assists for 10 points, one off his career high, and Aidan Villano scored five goals for the Pioneers (1-0), who outshot the Lions (0-3) by a 60-44 margin. Ben Hobday and Luke Bowen each scored a pair of goals for Tusculum, with one each by Tysen Fontenla, Conrad Binkley and Preston Stewart, whose goal with 4:37 left gave the Pioneers the lead for good at 17-16.
Ryley Dowswell had five goals for the Lions, with four goals from Ryland Laturell and three goals from Erik Lichtner. Emmanuel had four extra-man goals in the game while Tusculum connected five times with the man advantage.
Tusculum went up 2-0 after 2 1/2 minutes on goals from Villano and Fontenla, but Emmanuel ran off four straight goals to take a 4-2 lead on a goal from Laturell with 3:47 left in the first quarter. Royer responded with two goals in a span of 15 seconds to tie the game at 4-4, but Cole Stachniak connected with 1:19 remaining to put the Lions on top 5-4 after one quarter. Emmanuel never trailed in the second quarter, going up 7-4 on a Laturell goal with 11:30 left and 10-7 on a tally from Dowswell with 1:45 remaining in the first half, a lead that the Lions would take into the halftime.
The Pioneers were down 12-9 after a goal from the Lions' Grant Anderson with 6:39 left in the third quarter, but exploded for seven straight goals over the next eight minutes. Villano had four goals during the run and Bowen, Hobday and Royer also connected as Tusculum went up 16-12 with 13:41 left. Emmanuel responded with four in a row and tied the game at 16-16 on a Dowswell tally with 6:22 left.
Stewart put the Pioneers up 17-16 with 4:37 to play and Royer tacked on a goal with 2:02 left, but Laturell answered with the man advantage with 1:09 to go to leave the Pioneers up 18-17. Emmanuel won the faceoff and had two chances to tie, but Stachniak shot wide with 25 seconds left and Everett Muratori was stopped by Tusculum keeper Garrett Smith with eight seconds to go to end it.
Clay Mendez and Traford Couchman each had two assists for the Pioneers, with three assists for the Lions' Muratori and a goal and two assists from Devin Gardner.
Jayden Rios finished with 12 ground balls and was 20-for-32 on faceoffs in his debut for the Pioneers, while Binkley had four ground balls and a caused turnover. For Emmanuel, Ethan Hildebrandt finished with six ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers. Tusculum had a 36-33 ground ball edge in the game, while Emmanuel had 26 turnovers to 23 for the Pioneers. Tusculum had a 22-15 advantage in faceoffs and went 16-for-22 on clears while Emmanuel was 22-for-30 on clears.
Smith had 13 saves in the victory for the Pioneers, with 20 saves for Lions keeper Grady Magruder.
Tusculum is back on the road to visit Chowan on Tuesday, Feb. 17 beginning at 1 p.m. The Hawks, who finished 1-11 last season, will play Coker in their season opener next Saturday, Feb. 14.
