CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. --- Tusculum University scored the final five goals to break a 9-9 deadlock and defeat Thomas More University 14-9 in non-conference men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon.
Luke Bowen had three goals and three assists, Ben Royer added three goals and an assist and Tysen Fontenla scored three times for the Pioneers (3-0), who won despite being outshot 40-32 by the Saints and winning just nine of 27 faceoffs in the match. In the decisive fourth quarter, Tusculum won six of the eight faceoffs and outshot Thomas More by a 10-5 margin.
Bryce Collins and Spencer Lethbridge each had two goals and two assists for the Saints (1-2), whose only lead was at 1-0 but who came back four times to tie the score. Mario Hill was strong on faceoffs for Thomas More, winning 18-of-24 with 11 ground balls in the match.
Aidan Villano had two goals for Tusculum with a goal each from Zach Afalla, Jayden Thomas and Jayden Rios. The goal from Rios came with 10:12 to play and gave the Pioneers the lead for good at 10-9.
Tusculum led 3-2 after one quarter, but the Saints would tie the game at 3-3 and 4-4 in the second quarter before a goal from Royer with 39 seconds left in the first half gave the Pioneers a 5-4 lead at intermission.
Fontenla scored just over a minute into the third quarter for a 6-4 Tusculum lead, and the teams exchanged the next six goals as the Pioneers went up 9-7 into the fourth quarter.
The Saints rallied to tie the match at 9-9 on goals from Graham Houser and Joe Mariani, but Rios scored six seconds after Mariani to put the Pioneers up 10-9 with 10:12 to play. Fontenla made it 11-9 with 8:10 to go, before two goals from Bowen and one from Royer put away the win for the Pioneers.
Rios had a team-high six ground balls for the Pioneers, with four from Blake Harrison and three from Ben Hobday. Jesse Brown paced the Pioneers with a pair of caused turnovers. For Thomas More, Gus Kleeman finished with eight ground balls and three caused turnovers and Logan Kline had four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Tusculum was 1-for-2 with the man advantage, while Thomas More did not have an extra man opportunity. Thomas More collected 32 ground balls to 27 for Tusculum, and the Pioneers had 24 turnovers while the Saints finished with 20.
Garrett Smith finished with 11 saves in goal for the Pioneers, with five saves for the Saints' Baker Ebner.
Tusculum is back on the road on Saturday, Feb. 28 to take on Virginia State, beginning at 1 p.m.
