MARIETTA, Ohio - The Marietta College men's lacrosse team opened the season with a 14-8 defeat to Transylvania University on Saturday (Feb. 12) afternoon at Don Drumm Stadium.
Connor Ficke (Saint Leonard, Md./Calvert) broke the ice in the first three minutes as he put the hometown Pioneers on the board first. Transylvania evened it up seven minutes later when Quinn Fox stormed the net off of Kayd Aquino assist. Two minutes later, Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) scored his first goal of the campaign off of an Eren Evensen (Medina, Ohio/Medina) assist. Transylvania closed out the quarter with two more goals to give the road team the lead 3-2 after 1 period.
The second quarter saw a slowdown in scoring but a uptick in physicality as there were many penalties assessed on both teams. Mullen tied it up at 3 with a tally at the 7:55 mark, but Transylvania took the lead back just a minute later. Zach Rush (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central) found the goal with a little over a minute left on the clock to give both teams a tie at halftime.
Transylvania came out on fire in the second half. Andrew Hamill, Aquino, and Bryce Lowe peppered the goal to give the away Pioneers a cushion. Zach Radcliffe (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) and Eren Evensen (Medina, Ohio/Medina) found the goal for Marietta in the third period, but Marietta found themselves down three going into the final stanza.
Transylvania tacked on three more insurance goals before Quinn Rundgren (Angier, N.C./Fuquay Varina) scored his first goal of the season. Chase Franklin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) tacked on one more score for the Pioneers but they could not bridge the gap and fell in the season opener.
Dane Barker (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day) played all 60 minutes in goal, he faced 44 shots, 25 of which were on goal, and made 11 saves.
Defensively, Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park), Mullen, Blake Chisholm (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon McMillan), Rush, and Ben Hrovat all caused a turnover in the game. Rush and Jacob Morlando (White Bear Lake, Minn./Stillwater) each picked up a team high five groundballs in the game.
The Pioneers will return to the field next Saturday (Feb. 19) when they travel to Washington and Jefferson, with the game scheduled to begin 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.
