GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Southwestern University Pirates men's lacrosse team used a balanced scoring attack to hand the North Central College Cardinals their first loss of the season, defeating them 17-9.
Southwestern struck early, getting an unassisted goal from Logan Spalding less than two minutes into the game. North Central's Jared Weaver responded with one of his own at the 13:23 mark to tie the game.
The Pirates scored a pair of goals with Tyler Santos scoring on a Zac Asbury assist and Kai Knight-Turcan finding Asbury for a 3-1 lead. North Central managed to close the gap with another Weaver unassisted goal with four seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Everett Barger started the second quarter with a goal on a pass from Asbury for the Pirates at the 13:50 mark but Southwestern allowed North Central's Casimer Ploncyznski to pick up the ensuing face off and march right down the field for a score, keeping the Cardinals within one.
Southwestern took advantage of three penalties to score three consecutive goals while a man up to break the game open. Asbury found Welsh with 9:06 remaining in the half and Welsh assisted on Zach Taylor and Cody Foster goals less than a minute apart.
Knight-Turcan (from Barger) and Blake Sterger added two more goals roughly 14 seconds apart to give the Pirates a 9-3 lead at the break.
The Pirates scored three more goals to start the third, making it eight consecutive scored from the Pirates to build a 12-3 lead with Asbury and Tyler Santos each finding Benjamin Libby for a goal and Welsh connecting with Knight-Turcan. After Weaver scored his third unassisted goal of the game, Libby scored his third goal of the quarter on a pass from Asbury. Both teams traded a goal each after to end the quarter with a 14-5 Pirate lead.
Southwestern scored three more goals to start the quarter with Knight-Turcan finding Foster and Jack Doloszycki scoring back-to-back goals with the second coming from Asbury. North Central closed the game with four goals over the final seven minutes as the Pirates worked to bleed the clock.
Asbury led the Pirates with seven points on one goal and six assists while Knight-Turcan had two of each. Libby finished with a team-high three goals as the Pirates outshot North Central 41-25.
With the win, the Pirates improve to 7-4, dropping North Central to 6-1. Southwestern will travel to Colorado this weekend for games against Colorado St. Pueblo on Friday, March 29 at 12:00 p.m. and Saturday, March 30 against Johnson & Wales University at 2:00 p.m.