MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College men's lacrosse team relaunched their program with a 14-7 win over La Roche College. This was the first Marietta College men's lacrosse game played since 2003. With the win the Pioneers improved to 1-0 overall and the Redhwaks fall to 0-1 on the season.
Head Coach
Shawn Runyon said, "Today was a great day for Marietta lacrosse and everyone associated with the program. We have a lot we need to work on moving forward, but it was exciting to get out there and get that first win".
La Roche opened the scoring in the first quarter with a goal in the first two minutes of the game. The Pioneers answered when
John Sanford (Monrovia, Md./Urbana) found the back of the net off an unassisted goal at the 9:49 mark of the quarter. Marietta took its first lead of the new season three minutes later when
Quinn Rundgren (Angier, N.C./Fuquay Varina) scored an unassisted goal. After four and a half minutes of scoreless action
Chad Stowell (Watertown, Minn./Delano) ripped in back to back goals and provided the Pioneers a 4-1 edge. With one second remaining in the quarter La Roche scored, and cut the Marietta lead to 4-2 to enter the second quarter.
The second quarter got off to a quick start as Stowell found the found the back of the net three minutes into the quarter and put the Pioneers up 5-2. The majority of the second quarter was scoreless as there was a 12 minute scoreless drought. The drought was broken by Stowell when he scored off a feed from Rundgren, to increase Marietta's lead to 6-2. Once again the Redhawks scored a goal with only seconds remaining in the half, but the Pioneers led 6-3 at the intermission.
Marietta came out of the locker room ready to play as the Stowell scored his fourth goal of the game, 20 seconds into the third quarter. La Roche answered back with four consecutive goals to tie the game at 7-7, at the 7:35 mark of the third quarter. After four minutes of scoreless action the Pioneers regained the lead with a pair of goals from Rundgren and Sanford, and entered the fourth quarter ahead, 9-7.
The fourth quarter was dominated by Marietta as they scored five consecutive goals, and won the game, 14-7. Stowell poured in third goals in the fourth and Rundgren added the other two. Defensively, the Pioneers held the Redhawks scoreless for the final 23 minutes of the game.
Marietta was led by Stowell as he scored a game high eight goals, picked up eight ground balls and won a team high nine faceoffs. Rundgren added four goals, and three assists for the Pioneers offense. Defensively, Marietta was led by
Henry Clark (Moreland Hills, Ohio/Orange) as he had a game high nine ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers.
TJ West (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) and
Daniel Blaine (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) each notched three caused turnovers in the game.
In goal for the Pioneers was
Ryan McLane (Avon, Ohio/Avon) as he faced 29 shots, 11 of which were on goal, and made four saves.
Marietta will return to action Saturday (March 2) when they host Anderson University, with the game scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
Fans can follow all of the Pioneer teams all year long at pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
