GREENWOOD – The Lander men's lacrosse team battled their way to a tough 9-7 win over regional foe North Greenville on Saturday at Van Taylor Stadium with Brandon Perkins and Nolan Oakey both scoring three goals each in the win.

Lander moves to 4-1 overall while North Greenville drops to 2-3 overall.

The Bearcats were led in scoring by Perkins and Oakey with three goals while Oakey would lead the Bearcats in points with four. Oakey also was the leader in ground balls with six while Jake Watson collected five ground balls after winning 11 face offs. Four Bearcats were tied for the lead in caused turnovers with two each.

FIRST QUARTER

The Bearcats would jump out to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter. Nolan Oakey would score the first of four unanswered goals for Lander. Brady Foote would score the next goal to put Lander up 2-0 with 8:20 left in the first quarter while Oakey would score two more goals to give Lander a 4-0 lead before a buzzer-beater shot from the Crusaders ended the first frame with the Blue and Gold up 4-1.

Lander put 6-of-10 shots on goals and saw two saves made.

SECOND QUARTER

The second quarter would be an even 15 minutes of action with both sides scoring two goals each.

Lander would score the first two goals of the quarter with Carter Wilcox giving Lander a 5-1 lead before Perkins score his first of the game to put Lander up 6-1 before North Greenville scored two goals to cut Lander's lead to 6-3 at the half.

Lander put 6-of-14 

shots on goal in the second quarter with North Greenville forced to make four saves.

THIRD QUARTER

The Crusaders would outscore the Bearcats in the third quarter 3-2.

North Greenville attempted nine shots in the quarter with six going on target.

The Crusaders would strike first with 9:06 left in the quarter to make it a two-goal game before Perkins and Jeremy Wudrick got Lander in front 8-4 with six minutes remaining.

North Greenville would score a pair of last-minute goals to get back within two goals of Lander with the score set at 8-6 heading to the fourth quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER

The final quarter wouldn't feature much from either team as Lander and North Greenville would each score once.

The Bearcats peppered the Crusader goalie, making the opposition make five saves.

After the Crusaders scored with 12:46 left to get within one goal of Lander, Perkins fired home his third of the game to put Lander up 9-7 and conclude the scoring for the day.

Nicholas Paige played the entire game in the cage for Lander and earned the win. Paige is now 3-0 this season after making nine saves on the day.

The Bearcats travel to Savannah, Ga., for a neutral site contest of Embry-Riddle of the Sunshine State Conference for its next test on Friday, March 3 for a 7 pm start.

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