GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Lander University broke away from a second-quarter tie to defeat Tusculum University 18-4 in non-conference men’s lacrosse Tuesday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
The 20th-ranked Bearcats (6-1) outscored the Pioneers (0-6) by a 15-1 margin over the final three quarters, including 10-0 after halftime. Quinn Ingalls scored five goals to lead Lander while Nolan Oakey had four goals and two assists and Zan Dalpe had three goals and two assists for Lander, which outshot Tusculum by a 60-25 margin.
TJ Caldwell had two goals and an assist for the Pioneers and Wesley Phillips scored two goals to increase his career point total to 99 (42 goals, 57 assists). The Pioneers won 11 faceoffs and killed off three of four man-up opportunities for the Bearcats. However, Tusculum had 29 turnovers as a team and was 17-for-31 on clears while Lander was 30-for-31 on clears and had a 43-26 edge in ground balls.
Dalpe scored 43 seconds into the match to give the Bearcats a quick 1-0 lead, but Phillips responded two minutes later to knot the match at 1-1. Goals from Ingalls and James Linn pushed Lander in front 3-1 with 7:53 remaining in the opening quarter, but goals from Phillips with 6:30 left and Caldwell with 55 seconds to go tied the game at 3-3 after one.
Lander took the lead for good at 4-3 on a goal from Kyle DeCrispino with 10:26 left, and Oakey scored three straight goals in a span of five minutes for an 8-3 Lander lead with 2:30 left. Caldwell’s second goal of the game with 40 seconds remaining cut the Bearcats’ lead to 8-4 at halftime.
In the second half, Lander received goals from six different players in the third quarter to stretch its lead to 14-4, and Ingalls scored the final three goals of the match in the fourth quarter for the Bearcats.
Drake Vance had seven faceoff wins for the Pioneers, while Bryce Grimball had three ground balls and two caused turnovers. For Lander, Britton Weems, Jaxon Brandt and Alex Ellis each had four ground balls, with Josh Davies contributing three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Brenden Pecora played all 60 minutes in goal for the Pioneers and made 17 saves, while Nicholas Paige had nine saves in 50 minutes and Rhys Peterson made one save in 10 minutes for the Bearcats.
Tusculum has shuffled its upcoming schedule due to the threat of rain on Saturday. The scheduled non-conference home match against Thomas More on Saturday has been canceled, and replaced with a road match at Montreat on Thursday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
