GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - Southwestern men's lacrosse took two defeats this weekend to Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) opponents in Hope College and Albion College. The Pirates have taken down MIAA opponent Calvin University earlier this season but faced a significant challenge with Hope and Albion over the weekend.
Game 1
The Hope Dutchmen opened up the game with three straight goals over the course of the first five minutes. Finally, Cade McDonald scored the first goal for the Pirates at the six-minute mark of the first quarter, followed by Tommy Saueressig one minute later, the Pirate's two goals kept them from going down by a big lead, and the first ended 4-2 in favor of the Dutchmen.
Fireworks occurred in the second quarter of play, with nine goals scored between the two teams. McDonald started the scoring for the Pirates in the second quarter, followed again by Saueressig, just like the first period. The Dutchmen knocked in three more goals before the Georgetown native Matthew Houtz ended the Pirate's scoring drought. Saueressig secured his hat trick for the game at 2:41 in the quarter, but a last-second goal gave Hope a 6-9 lead going into the half.
The wheels fell off for the Pirates in the third quarter, the Southwestern defense allowed seven goals thanks to eight turnovers from the Pirate's offense, compared to just three from the Dutchmen. The Pirates won 7-11 faceoffs in the third, but the turnovers were detrimental to the Pirate's hopes of a comeback. Hope seven-goal third period put them up to a 16-9 lead, allowing them breathing room to cruise to a 10-18 win over Southwestern.
Game 2
Unlike the Pirate's battle with the Dutchmen, Southwestern didn't seem to stand a chance against the Albion College Britons. The Britons piled on eleven goals in the first quarter alone, with the Pirate only scoring just one goal from Houtz. The Britons played make-it-take and score lacrosse in the first, winning eleven out of thirteen faceoffs in the first period. The Pirates woke up in the second quarter, putting up five goals to the Briton's three, but Southwestern's slow start put them behind 14-6 at halftime.
Another slump by the Pirates in the third quarter allowed the Britons to score eight more goals from a perfect 10-10 at the faceoff. With the game in hand for the Britons, they cruised to the finish line despite Southwestern scoring eight goals in the fourth quarter of the game. Freshman Nate Duncan did all he could with six goals and one assist for the Pirates, but there was no hope against Albion's faceoff advantage plus their firepower. The Pirate goaltenders, led by Will Walsh, were shelled with thirty-four shots on cage and sixty shots overall. The Pirates gave up their worst faceoff percentage on the season, only winning three out of forty-one faceoffs for the contest. The faceoffs were the story of the game, Albion gave up twenty-nine turnovers to Southwestern's twelve. With the Britons dominating time of possession, as well as overall shooting percentage thanks to those possessions, they accumulated twenty-five goals to Southwestern's fifteen in the Pirate's loss at Alumni Field in Albion, Michigan.
Southwestern will have a chance to avenge those two losses, returning to Varsity Field on April 8th at 12:00 PM to faceoff against Rhodes College.
