GEORGETOWN - Junior Kai Knight-Turcan scored eight goals to go with three assists while senior Matt Amerie added a three goal, four assist showing as the Southwestern University men's lacrosse team had a stellar second half to upend Beloit 15-9 on Sunday afternoon at Varsity Field.
Dawning "throwback" jerseys, the Pirates forced Beloit into 30 turnovers despite being out shot 41-33. The Bucs held a slight 47-45 advantage in ground balls over the Pirates, but Southwestern was great in face-offs, taking 16 of 27.
Knight-Turcan got the Pirates ahead 1-0 early on, but Beloit responded with three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead. Amerie and Knight-Turcan responded with back-to-back goals midway through the first to even things up, but Beloit again went ahead 4-3.
Freshman Zac Asbury and Knight-Turcan closed the half with goals and the Pirates took a 5-4 lead into the second where Knight-Turcan found the back of the cage again for a 6-4 lead.
Beloit again used three consecutive goals to move back ahead, this time hold a 7-6 lead. However, Amerie and sophomore Zach Taylor closed the half with goals as the Pirates took an 8-7 advantage at the break.
Beloit would open the second half with a goal, but that was the last time the Bucs were in this contest, as the Pirates took control of the match, especially on the defensive end. Knight-Turcan scored back-to-back goals to make it 10-8 while juniors Logan Spalding and Jared Welsh closed the third with goals to take a 12-8 lead into the final period.
From there, Amerie and Knight-Turcan made it six straight as they scored back-to-back in only 41 seconds to give Southwestern a 14-8 lead. Beloit got one back, but Knight-Turcan put the icing on the cake with eighth goal to close the game as the Pirates earned the dominating victory.
After allowing 29 shots in the first, the Southwestern defense held Beloit to only 12 shots in the second half to go with 17 turnovers. Beloit was also 7 of 11 in clear attempts in the second half.
The two attackmen were nothing short of remarkable throughout the afternoon. Knight-Turcan added four ground balls in the contest while Welsh put together a nice outing, going for a goal and three assists. Asbury added two assits to his one goal performance while Spalding and junior Everett Barger also had an assist.
Defensively, sophomore Bailey Middleton had five caused turnovers while senior Sean Smith added four with each also adding three ground balls. Senior Jordan Riggs added three caused turnovers and three ground balls while freshman Achilles Armendariz had 10 ground balls from face off position. Sophomore Kyle Kuberski had 12 saves to go with seven ground balls.
Mark Gannon led Beloit with five goals while Jake Wallace and Gabe Pearlman each had three caused turnovers. John Murphy finished with nine saves in goal in the loss.
Southwestern moves to 6-5 overall and have won two straight. They will head to Whittier, Calif. for Spring Break as they will do battle with Eastern Connecuicut State on Tuesday afternoon at 2 PM.