GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Lenoir-Rhyne University defeated Tusculum University 19-5 in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action Wednesday night at Pioneer Field.
The start of the match was delayed by more than two hours due to lightning, but the sixth-ranked Bears (7-3, 4-2 SAC) were not deterred as they outshot the Pioneers (6-4, 2-4 SAC) by a 67-17 margin. Donovan Powell had four goals and three assists and Eli Busse and Caleb Haire added three goals and an assist apiece for Lenoir-Rhyne, which twice scored three goals in a span of less than 40 seconds.
Luke Bowen had two goals and an assist for the Pioneers, with a goal and two assists for Ben Royer and a goal and an assist from Aidan Villano. Traford Couchman also scored for the Pioneers, who were held to one shot in the fourth quarter and were beaten 21-7 on faceoffs.
A low-scoring first quarter saw goals from Sloan Steward and Powell answered by Couchman with three minutes left in the quarter to leave the Pioneers down 2-1 after one period. The Bears would score three times in 15 seconds to take a 5-1 lead on two goals from Busse and one from Powell, and the lead would grow to 8-2 by halftime.
The Bears had three goals in 36 seconds early in the third quarter and built a 14-2 lead with five minutes left in the period before Bowen scored twice to cut the margin to 14-4. Villano scored in the fourth for the Pioneers while the Bears received goals from five different players in the frame.
Tusculum finished with 30 turnovers in the game while Lenoir-Rhyne had 16 turnovers as a team. Aiden Paczek led the Pioneers with two caused turnovers while Mac Murphy had three caused turnovers for the Bears. Lenoir-Rhyne had a 42-21 edge in ground balls, led by six from Oran Lautenbach. Jesse Brown and Jake Kent each had a team-high three ground balls for the Pioneers.
Lenoir-Rhyne was 17-for-18 on clears in the game and went 0-for-2 with the man advantage, while Tusculum was 17-for-26 on clears and failed on all three of its extra-man opportunities.
Garrett Smith played all 60 minutes in goal for the Pioneers and had a season-high 17 saves, with Owen Peters (seven saves), Jack Burdge (three saves) and Graham Myers (zero saves) all seeing time in goal for the Bears.
The Pioneers will travel to Catawba to face the 12th-ranked Indians on Saturday at noon at Shuford Stadium. The Indians improved to 8-2 overall and 3-2 in SAC play with an 18-9 win over Coker on Wednesday.
