GEOREGETOWN - The Southwestern University men's lacrosse team dropped their opener at Varsity Field to Hendrix College on Saturday afternoon, 11-9, thanks to a huge third quarter for the Warriors, outscoring the Pirates 5-0.
The Pirates outshot the Warriors 43-30, but Hendrix came away with 47 ground balls to Southwestern's 42. Both teams finished with 23 turnovers while Hendrix held a slight advantage in face offs won, winning 13 of 24.
It was a wild first period as senior Matt Amerie got the scoring started for Southwestern in the first two minutes as he fired one in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead on the assists from freshman Zac Asbury. Hendrix scored back-to-back goals before junior Jared Welsh evened things at two on asn assist from junior Logan Spalding.
The Warriors scored two staright goals again in a span of 20 seconds to lead 4-2 with 4:08 to play. The Pirates got a late goal with 37 seconds left in the period from junior Kai Knight-Turcan as the Pirates cut the deficit to 4-3 at the end of one.
Junior Everett Barger evened the game at four and then assisted on a goal by Welsh, his second of the day, to push the Pirates back ahead by one. Knight-Turcan's second goal with 6:02 to play in the half made it four straight goals for the Pirates and a 6-4 lead. Hendrix tacked on a goal before break, but Southwestern went into half ahead 6-5.
From there, Hendrix made proper adjustments at the break and took control off the match in the third period, scoring five goals and following that up with a goal to start the fourth period to take a stunning 11-6 lead. Hendrix scored seven consecutive goals from the end of the second period to the start of the fourth.
Southwestern did not back down as they tried to piece together a rally. Knight-Turcan scored his third goal on an Asbury assist while Asbury scored a goal of his own to cut it to three. Sophomore Zach Taylor added a goal with a man-up on an Amerie assists, but it would not be enough as the Pirates fell 11-9.
Knight-Turcan finished with three goals while Asbury, in his collegiate debut, had a goal and three assists. Welsh added a pair of goals while Amerie had a goal and an assist.
Defensively, junior goalie Kyle Kuberski had 11 saves to go with six ground balls while sophomore Tanner Wallace had six ground balls and three caused turnovers. Senior Sean Smith had six ground balls while sophomore Bailey Middleton had four caused turnovers and three assists.
For Hendrix, Cole Cramer led the way with three goals and an assist while Samuel Martin had four caused turnovers and five ground balls. Taylor Noack had 10 saves on 16 shots while Patrick Adamo added five saves.
Southwestern falls to 0-1 on the young season and will look to bounce back next weekend, as they welcome in the Berry College Vikings with a slated start time of 3 PM from Varsity Field.