ROCK ISLAND, ILL. -- The Trine University men's lacrosse team improved to 4-0 to start the season with an 11-9 victory against Augustana (Ill.) College in a non-conference matchup in Rock Island, Ill.
Freshman Andrew Douglas (Liberty Twp., Ohio/Lakota East) led the team in overall scoring with game-tying highs of three goals and three assists for six toal points. Junior Brennan Battle (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) also scored three goals and assisted on another to finish second on the team in points with four.
Freshman Cabe Maskevich (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) rounded out the multi-goal scorers with two markers for two points. Juniors Matt Zanichelli (Rolling Meadows, Ill./William Fremd), Tyler Corless (St. Clair Shores, Mich./De La Salle) and freshman Zach Anderson (Crestwood, Ill./Oak Forest) each tallied a goal. Zanichelli also added an assist, while Corless also assisted on two goals.
Junior Jarod Schepp (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) completed the list of point scorers with an assist.
Junior Dave Keptner (Midland, Mich./H.H. Dow) led the team in ground balls with seven and was followed by freshman Brandon Clark (Liberty Twp., Ohio/Lakota East) with six ground balls. Senior Keith McCowan (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) rounded out the top three with five ground balls.
Both McCowan and Keptner led the team in caused turnovers with four.
In net, junior Anthony Marasco (Naperville, Ill./Nequa Valley) continued his hot play with 14 saves in 60 minutes of action.
Both teams scored a pair of goals in the opening quarter with Augustana (1-5) striking first on a man advantage at the 10:26 mark for a 1-0 lead. About three-and-a-half minutes later, Corless put Trine (4-0) on the scoreboard when he got a shot past the Viking netminder with just under seven minutes to go in the period. Thirty-three seconds later, Augustana broke the tie with its second goal of the contest for a 2-1 advantage. Nearing the end of the quarter, Trine tied the game again when Battle found the back of the net for the first time with a marker at the 2:45 mark to make it a 2-2 game after the first 15 minutes.
Augustana put the first goal on the board in the second quarter to regain the lead by a margin of 3-2. Trine then scored the next three goals starting with a goal by Battle with 12:23 left in the half and then Douglas recorded his first goal of the afternoon with 8:23 remaining and put the Thunder back out in front, 4-3. Battle then struck against with just under five minutes left before the break, with a helper from Corless, to extend the margin to two goals, 5-3. The Vikings cut the Trine lead in half before the end of the quarter at the 2:32 mark, but the Thunder got one final goal before halftime when Douglas scored his second goal of the contest with 50 seconds to play to send the Thunder into the locker room leading by two scores, 6-4.
In the third period, the two squads struck for three goals each with Trine's scores coming off the sticks of Zanichelli, Maskevich and Anderson. The Thunder opened up a four-goal lead following the Anderson goal, 9-5, before Augustana tallied two goals before the end of the period to make it a two-goal game, 9-7, heading into the fourth quarter.
Augustana crept to within a goal early in the fourth quarter with a score at the 12:40 mark to trail, 9-8. Maskevich and Douglas then scored the next two goals of the game that extended the lead for Trine to three scores, 11-8, with 2:45 remaining in regulation. With a little over a minute left, the Vikings netted their ninth goal of the game, but it would be the final score by either team as Trine went on to claim the two-goal victory, 11-9.
Trine will next travel to Naperville, Ill. to take on North Central (Ill.) College on Wednesday, Mar. 11. The game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EST.
