NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The Marietta College men's lacrosse team fell 13-9 to Muskingum on Wednesday (April 26) evening in the regular season finale.
Muskingum's Spencer Zecchini had a big game for the Muskies scoring seven times. His first goal came three minutes into the contest and then scored again at the 8:30 mark to give the Fighting Muskies a two-goal lead.
Colton Abate (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) answered quickly just one minute later and followed with another goal with less than six minutes to play in the period. Both teams played physical but remained tied at two going into the second period.
Marietta was held scoreless for much of the second period while Muskingum jumped back out to a 5-2 lead.
Chase Mullen (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) got the Pioneers on the comeback trail with an unassisted goals with three minutes left in the half.
Chase Franklin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) then converted a great
Kyle Fleshman (Davidsonville, Md./South River) pass into a score in the final minute and Marietta only trailed by one goal, 5-4, going into halftime.
The Muskies took control in the third period, scoring the first foul goals of the quarter to extend the lead to 9-4. The Pioneers did their best to stay within striking distance. Abate scored at the 5:56 mark,
Thomas Zerman (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville South) scored unassisted two minutes later, and
Nate Neal (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) scored to cut the lead to 9-7 going into the fourth period.
Despite
Connor Ficke (Saint Leonard, Md./Calvert) scoring twice in the final period, Marietta could not contain Zecchini. His final two scores in the final minutes cemented the 13-9 victory for the Muskies.
Dane Barker (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day) got the start in goal for the Pioneers. He faced 26 shots on goal and made 12 saves.
Abate led the way with the three goals. Ficke scored two goals and assisted on another. Franklin had three assists to go along with his one goal on the evening.
Nathan Grover (North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) won 11 face-offs and picked up a team high seven groundballs.
The Pioneers concluded their season with an overall record 5-10, and compiled a 3-6 record in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
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.
