SEWANEE, Tenn. - The Southwestern University men's lacrosse scored a pair of late goals to force overtime with the defending SAA-champion Sewanee Tigers, but the Tigers came away with the game-winning goal in overtime for the 9-8 win on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers narrowly outshot the Pirates 43-39, but Southwestern played an excellent game defensively, forcing 21 turnovers while only giving it away 13 times. Sewanee had a 37-28 advantage in ground balls while the Pirates were 18 of 19 in clear attempts.
Southwestern opened the game with a 2-0 lead as juniors Jared Welsh and Logan Spalding scored back-to-back goals. Sewanee responded with a pair of goals towards the end of the quarter, but Spalding connected with his second goal with 51 seconds remaining for a 3-2 lead going into the second.
The Pirates made it 4-2 as junior Everett Barger scored on Zac Asbury's second assist. Sewanee got two goals back with less than three minutes to play to even teh game at four going into the break.
Sophomore Zach Taylor made it a 5-4 game in the third, but Sewanee, again, closed the quarter with two goals to take its first lead of the game at 6-5.
Asbury scored early in the fourth to even the game at six a piece, but all game long, Sewanee seemed to answer with back-to-back goals, pushing ahead 8-6 with 10 minutes to play.
Senior Matt Amerie got the Pirates within one on a goal with 5:47 to play and followed that up with the game-tying goal with 2:34 to play to send the game into overtime.
It looked as though the game may go into a second overtime before Jimmy Parker ended the game with a goal with 1:10 to play to earn the 9-8 win on their home field.
Amerie and Spalding finished with two goals each while Asbury had a goal and three assists. Welsh also had a goal and an assist in the contest. Defensively, Spalding, sophomore Tanner Wallace, and freshman David Miller all had two caused turnovers while senior Parker Rankin had five ground balls. Miller and Barger each had three ground balls as well.
In goal, junior Kyle Kuberski finished with eight saves in the contest.
Thomas Lynde led Sewanee with two goals and an assist while Ryan Stubits had seven ground balls. Tal Wharton was terrific for the Tigers, notching 15 saves in the win.
Southwestern moves to 1-3 on the season and will return home on Tuesday for a 7 PM match-up with Marian at Varsity Field.