SC Tennessee News

Nate Raymond became Tusculum University's career leader in goals with a five-goal performance as the Pioneers pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 14-6 victory over Lees-McRae College in non-conference men's lacrosse action Wednesday night from Tate Field.

Tristan Kirkham became the 10th player in program history to reach 100 career points with four goals and an assist for the Pioneers (4-1), who outscored the Bobcats (0-5) by a 9-1 margin over the final 20 minutes after the teams were tied at 5-5 midway through the third quarter. Jordan Daniel added two goals and two assists and Will Cookman had a goal and two assists for the Pioneers, who were outshot 36-31 by the Bobcats but scored on seven of their 11 shot attempts in the final quarter.

Six different players scored one goal apiece for Lees-McRae, which led 2-0 after three minutes and battled back into a 5-5 tie early in the third quarter. However, the Pioneers would shut out the Bobcats for more than 22 minutes in the second half while scoring six straight goals to build an 11-5 lead.

Raymond entered the game three goals shy of the program career record of 105 goals set by Ben Boyd from 2014-17, and tied the mark on a goal with 3:21 left in the third quarter. Raymond's fourth of the game with 2:46 left off an assist by Daniel would be his record 106th goal, and Raymond would add his 107th of his career and fifth of the game with 51 seconds left to close the scoring.

With his six points against Lees-McRae, Raymond moved into a tie for second place on the Tusculum career point list with Nate Wade (2015-18) with 142 points, four shy of the record of 146 set by Liam Macdonald from 2017-20. Daniel is now four assists shy of tying Macdonald's program mark of 75 career assists.

Kirkham's first point of the evening came on a goal with 10:21 left in the second quarter off an assist by Raymond, as he became the 10th player in program history to reach 100 points in a career. Kirkham would then pass Kale Lawrence (102 points from 2019-22) for ninth place on the all-time list with a third-quarter goal.

Lees-McRae went ahead 2-0 within the first three minutes on goals from Ryan Bird and Clay Adams 17 seconds apart. Tusculum was kept off the board until Raymond netted his first of the night with 2:47 to play, but the Bobcats still held a 2-1 lead after one period.

The Pioneers would go up 4-2 with three goals in a four-minute span of the second quarter, with two from Kirkham and one from Raymond, but Tyler Flannelly would snap the first of two goal droughts from Lees-McRae at nearly 21 minutes as the Pioneers held a 4-3 lead with 5:56 to the half. Kirkham's third of the game with 3:46 left came off an assist by Cookman as Tusculum went to intermission on top 5-3.

Lees-McRae would tie the game on two quick goals from Spence Combs and Ayden Kennedy, the first with the man advantage, as the teams would be locked 5-5 with 9:54 remaining in the third quarter. Four minutes later, a goal from Kirkham would be followed by one from Raymond as Tusculum went ahead 7-5 heading to the fourth.

After playing 5 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter without a goal, the teams would combine for eight goals in the last 9 1/2 minutes. Cookman scored with a man advantage for an 8-5 Tusculum lead with 9:25 left, followed by two goals in two minutes for Jordan for a 10-5 lead with 6:16 on the clock. Raymond would then collect his record-setting goal with 2:46 left for an 11-5 Pioneer advantage, before Logan Ryan would end the Bobcats' drought 11 seconds later. Tusculum netted three goals in the final two minutes, one apiece from Nicholas Drennan, Wesley Phillips and Raymond again to set the final score.

Devin Bowen led the Tusculum defense with three ground balls and three caused turnovers, while Nolan Ross also had three caused turnovers. Kirkham and Drennan each had three ground balls for the Pioneers, with two caused turnovers and a pair of ground balls from Phillips. For the Bobcats, Kaleb Simpson was 10-for-17 on faceoffs with five ground balls, and Ryan had a team-high six ground balls in the match.

Lees-McRae won 15 faceoffs in the match to 11 for Tusculum, with the Bobcats finishing with 24 turnovers to 19 by the Pioneers. Tusculum was 32-for-35 on clears and went 20-for-21 in the second half, and Tusculum converted its only man-up chance while killing off two of the three Lees-McRae extra-man opportunities.

Diego Hopkins played the second half in goal for the Pioneers and made five saves, after Riley Semmes had three saves in the first half for Tusculum. Liam Murphy went the distance for the Bobcats and had 11 saves in the contest.

Tusculum is slated to host Alabama Huntsville in a non-conference match on Friday at 1 p.m. at Pioneer Field. The Chargers will be playing their first road match of the season after going 3-2 at home to start the 2023 campaign.

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