ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's lacrosse team utilized lockdown defense to secure a second-half comeback victory, defeating visiting DePauw University by the score of 8-6.
The Tigers had the upper hand in the first half scoring the first two goals of the game and three in the first quarter. The Thunder got on the board with just under nine minutes remaining in that first period, but would trail 3-1 at the first break. Senior Andrew Douglas scored for the team with freshman Jackson Bell adding the assist.
DePauw built their largest lead of the day over the first half of the second quarter. They scored two goals to make the score 5-1, but a penalty after the second of those goals gave Trine a great chance to start the comeback. Head coach Ryan Kuhn called a timeout to prepare for the opportunity and it seemed to work with the team scoring quickly to cut back into the lead. Junior Klein Burkholder scored the goal with classmate Collin Custer adding the assist.
Finally, the offense woke up a bit for the team after the goal. Senior Noah Markus scored another goal for the team with six and a half minutes left. Then sophomore Charlie Anderson added another a minute later with an assist from classmate Samuel Achor. The 5-4 score would last into halftime.
Trine struck first in the second half with Anderson and Achor teaming up for another goal, tying the game at five. The two teams traded goals through the rest of the third period with Markus tying the game again with four minutes remaining in the quarter.
The 6-6 score held for the first eight minutes of the final period, until Douglas connected on a pass to freshman Peter Piccillo who scored a goal to give the Thunder their first lead of the game. In the final minute of the game Douglas once again fired a pass toward Piccillo who batted the ball into a nearly empty net to ice the game and give the final score of 8-6.
The Thunder improve to 4-0 following the come from behind victory. They will continue their season when they host Cornell (Iowa) College on Wednesday, March 15. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.