AURORA, Colo. – A strong rally in the third quarter fell short in the fourth for the Southwestern University Pirates men's lacrosse team, which lost to the Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSU) Thunderwolves 16-13 in the first game of a two-game trip to Colorado.
The Thunderwolves jumped ahead to an early 4-1 lead with three unassisted goals by three different players and a Tommy Vassallo pass to Weston Bartgis. Jared Welsh put the Pirates on the board with an unassisted goal of his own at the 13:07 mark.
Southwestern responded with three consecutive goals to tie the game at 4-4 with Zach Taylor and Zac Asbury scoring back-to-back unassisted goals a minute apart and Cody Foster finding Kai Knight-Turcan at the 2:52 mark.
The defense surrendered two late goals however, with Weston Bartgis finding Anthony Ferrie at the 1:58 mark and Taylor Davis with 27 seconds remaining in the first quarter to take a 6-4 lead.
CSU extended the lead in the second with a 4-2 edge in the quarter, scoring three consecutive goals in the middle of the quarter from the 7:22 mark to the 3:48 mark with two coming on Anthony Ferrie passes and the third coming from Ferrie himself before Asbury ended the run with an unassisted goal as the Pirates trailed 10-6 at the half.
Southwestern made a big rally in the third quarter with Logan Spalding scoring on an assist from Everett Barger in the first minute. After Bartgis responded with an assist to Vassallo for CSU, the Pirates rattled off three unanswered goals to end the quarter with Asbury finding Welsh, Welsh finding Barger, and Knight-Turcan scoring an unassisted goal with one second remaining to pull within one at 11-10.
Asbury opened the fourth quarter finding Knight-Turcan to tie the game at 11-11 in the first 10 seconds but the Thunderwolves scored four unanswered goals to pull away.
Asbury led the Pirates with five points, scoring two goals with three assists. Knight-Turcan led the team in goals with four. Vassallo and Ferrie were a potent one-two punch for CSU with each totalling seven points.
With the loss, the Pirates dropped to 7-5 on the season and 3-2 in away games. Southwestern will stay in Colorado to play Johnson & Wales University on Saturday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m.
