STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – The Marietta College men's lacrosse team earned a solid victory to close out their non-conference schedule with a 12-7 win over Franciscan University on Wednesday (Mar. 22) evening. With the win the Pioneers improve to 2-4 overall and with the loss the Barons fall to 4-2 overall.
Marietta opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game as
Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) scored off a feed from
Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch). Franciscan's Gavin Cook tied up the game a minute later and broke the tie with a goal at 6:11 mark. In the closing minutes, Marietta took advantage of a Baron's penalty and Neal scored again, this time with a man advantage, and the Pioneers took a 2-2 score into the second quarter.
Marietta started off the second quarter in rapid fashion as
Nathan Grover (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) won the opening face-off, picked up the groundball, and whipped the shot into the net for his first goal of the season. The Pioneers scored again just 50 seconds later as
Colton Abate (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) scored, giving the Pioneers a 4-2 lead. Marietta scored on another extra-man opportunity with six minutes remaining as
Chase Franklin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) scored off of a Mullen assist. Both teams battled for remainder of the period and the Pioneers led, 5-3, at the intermission.
In the pivotal third period, Abate struck quickly with a score in the first minute and a goal with 6:40 remaining, extending the lead to 7-4. The Pioneers were cruising as
Kyle Fleshman (Davidsonville, Md./South River) scored a late goal, but Franciscan was able to cut the lead to two with a pair of quick goals of their own to close out the third period.
Although the Pioneers gave up the first goal of the fourth period, they closed the game on a strong note.
Ben Millard (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) made three saves down the stretch and Marietta poured in four more goals to complete the victory. Franklin tallied three of those four goals, Mullen scoring the other, and the Pioneers would cruise to a 12-7 victory.
Millard played all 60 minutes in goal. He faced 36 shots, 19 of which were on goal, and made 12 saves.
Franklin led the Pioneers with four goals on the evening. Abate scored three goals, assisted on one other, and caused a turnover. Grover was 13-22 in the faceoff and picked up a team high seven groundballs.
Marietta will return to the field Saturday (Mar. 25) afternoon when they begin the conference portion of their schedule. The Pioneers with battle Heidelberg at home 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.
