GREENWOOD – The Lander men's lacrosse team tied a program record for goals scored in a game as it took down the Tusculum Pioneers 25-6 at Van Taylor Stadium Tuesday evening.
Lander set the program high for goals scored on Senior Day last season when it defeated Shorter 25-4 in Greenwood.
Lander moves to 5-2 overall while Tusculum drops to 4-3 overall.
Lander was led by Adam Mather's four goals while Brady Foote and Brandon Perkins both had three. Mather and Carter Wilcox shared the lead for assists with three while Mather led the way with seven points on the night. Britton Weems caused a team-high three turnovers as well.
The Bearcats put 44 of its 63 shots on goals against the Pioneers with 14 different Bearcats scoring.
The Bearcats jumped out a 4-0 lead with Adam Mather scoring the opening goal before a pair of goals came from Kyle DeCrispino while Jeremy Wudrick scored the fourth goal.
Tusculum would get a goal with 6:31 left in the first before Lander would counter with a strike from Brandon Perkins to close the first quarter out with the Blue and Gold leading 5-1.
Lander would proceed to score three goals to open the second quarter, with a total of 10 goals coming for the Bearcats in the second frame. Mather would score back-to-back goals while Perkins would notch another before the Pioneers would score just their second goal to make it an 8-2 game.
Nick Benoit, Nolan Oakey and Brady Foote would put together a four-goal stretch to put Lander ahead 13-2 before Tusculum scored its third goal with 2:40 left in the half. Blake Moore and Noah Longest would both score to give Lander a 15-3 edge at the half.
The third quarter would feature six unanswered goals from the Bearcats to begin.
Britton Weems, Perkins, Foote, Krew Conroy and Wudrick would all notch goals as Lander was now in front 21-3 with 1:55 left in the third. Tusculum notched its fourth goal with 1:18 left in the third quarter.
The Bearcats would only put four goals on the board in the fourth with the damage already done to the Pioneers.
Mather and Drew Wilson would score the first two goals of the final frame before the Pioneers scored their fifth goal of the game with 11:09 left in the game. Chance Hainey and Ethan Kevelder both notched goals while Tusculum would score once more to round out the scoring.
Nicholas Paige moves to 4-1 on the season with the victory. Paige made five saves in the win for Lander. Liam Mackay and Rhys Peterson also saw time in the cage.
The Bearcats travel to Fort Mill, S.C., to battle Barton College in a neutral site contest at Nation Ford High School on March 11 for a 2 pm contest.
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