GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Tusculum University shut out Alabama Huntsville in the fourth quarter and took a 13-10 victory in non-conference men’s lacrosse Wednesday evening at Pioneer Field.
The Pioneers (7-5) were outshot 61-30 by the Chargers (3-12) but Garrett Smith made a career-high 18 saves and had a career-best .750 save percentage in the victory. UAH had 29 shot attempts in the second half, including 13 on goal, but scored just twice as Smith made 11 saves after intermission.
Ben Royer led the Pioneers with three goals and three assists, with two goals and two assists from Luke Bowen. Tysen Fontenla had two goals and an assist and Ben Hobday added a pair of goals for the Pioneers, with a goal and two assists from Preston Stewart and one goal each from Zach Afalla, Traford Couchman and Jake Kent.
Brock Deist had three goals and an assist for the Chargers, with a goal and two assists from Makai Hillmon and a goal and an assist from Aydan Weiszhar. Five other players had a goal apiece for Alabama Huntsville, which also had a 41-30 advantage in ground balls and won 16 of the 26 faceoffs in the match.
Tusculum killed off all five man advantages for UAH, the third straight match that the Pioneers have not allowed a goal while a man down. The Pioneers were just 22-for-31 on clear attempts while the Chargers turned the ball over on eight of their 29 clears.
The game was tied eight different times in the first 33 minutes before the Pioneers took the lead for good on a goal by Royer midway through the third quarter. The Chargers would score just once after tying the game at 9-9 on a goal from Griffin Utz with 11:57 left in the third period, just 10 seconds after Hobday had given the Pioneers a 9-8 advantage.
The Pioneers scored just nine seconds into the game as Bowen connected off a pass from faceoff man Jayden Rios, but the Chargers came back just over a minute later on a goal from Deist. The Chargers scored twice in 21 seconds to go ahead 4-3 with 9:39 left in the quarter, and added a second goal from Deist to go ahead 5-3 which UAH carried into the second quarter.
Tusculum quickly regained the lead in the second quarter as Kent, Couchman and Bowen scored in the first three minutes for a 6-5 lead. Alabama Huntsville went back on top 8-7 on a goal from Carson Kingsbury with 2:55 remaining, but a goal from Afalla with 1:42 left tied the game at 8-8 into halftime.
Royer put the Pioneers ahead 10-9 with 8:27 left in the third quarter, and a goal from Hobday stretched the lead to 11-9 with 4:42 to go. Deist collected what would be the final goal of the night for the Chargers with 1:13 left in the period as the Pioneers led 11-10 after three quarters.
In the fourth, Fontenla put the Pioneers up 12-10 just 58 seconds into the quarter, and a goal from Royer with 9:10 left would be the last of the night for either team. UAH had 12 shot attempts in the final period but Smith made six saves to preserve the lead.
Rios had eight ground balls to lead the Pioneers, with four apiece by Kent and Blake Harrison and three from Royer and Aiden Paczek, who also had two caused turnovers to increase his season total to 23, one off the program record of 24 set by Connor Coleman in 2021.
Brenden Thomas was 14-for-24 on faceoffs and had eight ground balls for the Chargers, with four ground balls and two caused turnovers by Logan Grimm and three ground balls and two caused turnovers by both Owen Forbes and Nate Burt.
Alex Germain started in goal on Senior Night for the Pioneers and played the first 5 minutes, 36 seconds, making a pair of saves before giving way to Smith. Shaun Wilson played all 60 minutes for the Chargers and finished the match with six saves.
The Pioneers are off until Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. when they travel to Newberry to take on the Wolves, who are currently ranked 13th in the USILA Division II poll.
