MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College men's lacrosse team scored three late goals to earn an 11-9 victory over the University of Mount Union, on Wednesday (Mar. 29) evening. This marks the first victory in program history over the Purple Raiders. With the win the Pioneers improve to 4-4 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference and with the loss Mount Union falls to 3-6 overall and 0-2 in OAC action.
"It makes me so proud to see the hard work the guys put in day in and day out pay off," said Marietta College Head Coach
Ben Suchomma. "Looking forward to seeing this group keep growing and improving."
Both teams battled back and forth all throughout the matchup, but the Raiders lit up the scoreboard first as Logan Addonozio found the back of the net 90 seconds into the contest. Marietta answered a few minutes later as
Josh Walters (Cleves, Ohio/Taylor) broke free and slung a shot into the net, tying the game at one.
Colton Abate (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) made his presence felt over the next two minutes as he scored twice, extending the lead to 3-1. Mount Union came back with two goals of their own and both teams took a 3-3 tie into the second quarter.
Chase Franklin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) wasted little time in the second quarter putting the Pioneers ahead with a score, but Eli Ciotti followed with two goals of his own, the second at the 3:17 mark, to give the Raiders the lead. Abate tied it up with a goal with 2 minutes remaining, and after a Mount Union penalty,
Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) scored the go-ahead goal to give Marietta a 6-5 going into intermission.
The two teams played some great defense in the third quarter, but the Purple Raiders finally broke the drought at the 8:26 mark. Logan Gebhart's score tied it up at six.
Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) answered a minute later with a score, but Connor Addison found the net late in the period and the teams were deadlocked at seven going into the final period.
Mount Union's Dane Matuscin sent a shot into the net three minutes into the final period to give them an 8-7 lead. The Pioneers finally answered four minutes later as
Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) tied the game up off of a great
Logan Podgorski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Bethel Park) assist. Marietta then took control of the match as they scored three more unanswered goals to extend the lead to 11-8. Abate, Neal, and
Kyle Fleshman (Davidsonville, Md./South River) provided enough offense to cause the Raiders to have to score quickly and often in the final moments of the game. Even though Mount Union was able to tack on one more score, they ran out of time and Marietta went on the record their third straight victory, 11-9.
Ben Millard (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) got the start for the Pioneers in the net. He faced 36 shots, 27 of which were on goal and had 17 saves.
Abate led the team with four goals and Neal and Mullen scored two goals apiece. Franklin led with three assists but Mullen was close behind with two assists.
Nathan Grover (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) controlled the faceoff circle, especially late in the contest. He won 17 of 22 on the evening and picked up 6 groundballs, keeping the Pioneers constantly on the attack late in the match.
Benjamin Hrovat (Jamestown, R.I./Bishop Hendricken) and Franklin each picked up five groundballs.
Marietta will return to the field Saturday (April 1) when they travel to take on Wilmington College, 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.
