GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Marietta College men's lacrosse team was in action Saturday (March 9) as they were defeated by Thiel College, 16-10. With the loss the Pioneers fall to 2-1 overall and the Tomcats improve to 2-2 on the season.
Marietta jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening minute of the game when
Quinn Rundgren (Angier, N.C./Fuquay Varina) found the back off the net for an unassisted goal. After four plus minutes of scoreless action
Chad Stowell (Watertown, Minn./Delano) put the Pioneers up 2-0 with an unassisted goal. Thiel responded with back to back goals to tie the game at two goals apiece with just over seven minutes to play in the opening quarter. After five minutes of scoreless action, the Tomcats scored a goal and took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter.
Thiel carried their momentum over to the second quarter as they outscored Marietta 8-0, and the Tomcats entered the intermission ahead, 11-2.
The second half opened as a defensive battle, with the opening five minutes of the half being scoreless. The Tomcats broke the draught with four straight goals, to take a 15-2 edge, with 5 minutes to play in the third quarter. The Pioneers cut into the Thiel advantage with back to back goals from
Jackson McGill (New Market, Md./Oakdale) and
Justin Blasko (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) to make the score 15-4 with two minutes remaining in the third. The goal by McGill was a man up goal, and Blasko's was the first of his career.
Marietta started the fourth quarter quickly, when
Jayson White (Salisbury, Md./Wicomico) scored an unassisted goal 20 seconds into the final frame. Five minutes later Stowell netted his second goal of the game and the cut the Tomcats lead to 15-6. The Pioneers continued to battle and at the 4:50 mark of the final quarter Rundgren scored his second goal of the game for Marietta. Less than a minute later, White scored his second goal of the game off a feed from Rundgren, and trimmed the Thiel edge to 15-8. White notched a third goal a minute and a half later off an assist from Blasko. The Tomcats halted the Pioneers run with a goal, with two minutes to play, and took a 16-9 advantage. Marietta made the score 16-10 with 38 seconds to play when Rundgren scored his third goal of the game, but the Pioneers fell 16-10.
Marietta was led by Rundgren as he had three goals, one assist, and four ground balls in the game. White added three goals for the Pioneer offense. Stowell pitched in with a pair of goals in the game for Marietta.
In net for the Pioneers was
Ryan McLane (Avon, Ohio/Avon), he faced 40 shots, 22 of which were on goal, and made six saves.
Marietta will be back in action Wednesday (March 13) when they travel to take on Chatham University, with the game scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Fans can follow all 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.
