ANDERSON, S.C. --- Fifth-ranked Anderson University defeated Tusculum University 22-7 in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse Tuesday night at Spero Financial Field.
Ryan Bitterman and Brodie Deutsch scored four goals apiece for the Trojans (10-1, 4-1 SAC), who outshot the Pioneers (5-3, 1-3 SAC) by a 75-35 margin and won 25 of the 33 faceoffs in the match.
Preston Stewart scored two goals for the Pioneers, with a goal and two assists from Ben Royer and one goal each from Luke Bowen, Aidan Villano, Traford Couchman and Jackson Cardey.
Anderson led 6-0 after one quarter and went up 7-0 before Cardey got the Pioneers on the board with his first career goal with 13:44 remaining in the first half. Bowen scored two minutes later for the Pioneers, but Anderson ran off the next three goals to go up 10-2 at halftime.
The Trojans would stretch their lead to 16-2 before the Pioneers got goals from Couchman and Villano late in the third quarter. Stewart scored twice in a span of 41 seconds in the fourth quarter, and Royer capped the scoring for the Pioneers with 2:32 remaining.
Twelve different players scored at least one goal for the Trojans, with Aiden Dixon going 12-for-15 on faceoffs and AJ Rush 13-for-16. Dixon led all players with 10 ground balls in the game, while Rush collected eight.
Tusculum junior Blake Harrison tied his career high with eight ground balls, and became the 11th player in program history to reach 100 career ground balls. Harrison is now ninth in program history with 104 ground balls in his Tusculum career.
Garrett Smith played just over 51 minutes in goal for the Pioneers and had 15 saves, with Ryan McKeown making three saves in the final nine minutes. Adin Laughlin made eight saves in the first three quarters for Anderson, while Bobby Devenport had five saves in the fourth quarter.
Tusculum was 25-for-30 on clears in the match and had 23 turnovers, while Anderson was 23-for-26 on clears and turned the ball over 14 times. The Pioneers were 1-for-3 with the man advantage, while the Trojans did not have an extra man opportunity in the game.
The Pioneers host Coker on Saturday, March 28 beginning at noon at Pioneer Field. The Cobras are 6-4 overall and 2-3 in the SAC, and are coming off a 28-15 home loss to Anderson on Saturday.
