GEORGETOWN, Texas-- The Trine men's lacrosse team dropped an 11-7 decision to Kean in a neutral-site contest Tuesday at Southwestern University.
The Cougars scored eight of the first 10 goals of the contest to establish control by the early stages of the third quarter to earn the victory. Anthony Carpenter and Joe Norton led the way with three tallies apiece. Chris Ward (Oak Lawn, Ill./St. Rita) paced the Thunder attack with three goals as all three of his shots on goal found the back of the net. Trine fell to 0-2 on the season. Kean remained perfect at 3-0.
Daniel William Shine (Chicago, Ill./Lane Tech College Prep) added his first two career goals for the Thunder. Nick Maher (DeWitt, Mich./DeWitt) contributed a goal and two assists, while defender Colin O'Keefe (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) also got into the scoring act for Trine.
Jordan Backer (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) had an active game to pace the defensive corps, notching five ground balls and causing one turnover. Travis Lores (Kildeer, Ill./Lake Zurich) made 12 saves while playing all 60 minutes in net.
Kean outshot Trine by a 44-25 margin. The Cougars also won 14-of-21 face-offs and held a 36-23 edge in ground balls. Ed Adams accounted for the entire positive face-off margin for Kean and notched a game-high 12 ground balls. Eric Talbot added two goals to contribute to the attack.
O'Keefe got the Thunder on the board first in a man-down situation. A Lores save led to a successful clearing attempt, with O'Keefe finishing the break with his second-career goal.
Kean responded with the next four goals to take a 4-1 lead early in the second quarter. Shine's first-career goal came off an assist from Maher to cut the deficit to two with 12:15 to play in the half.
The Cougars would go on to score the next four goals to take an 8-2 lead early in the third quarter. Trine would get no closer than the final four-goal margin the rest of the way.
Ward scored all three of his goals in the second half. Two of the senior's tallies came in man-up situations. The Thunder converted 2-of-5 opportunities on the man-advantage.
Paul Carlquist (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove South) assisted on Ward's final goal. The assist gives the senior 95 career points, 35 of which have come off assists. Ward now has 92 career points to give the Thunder two seniors chasing the 100-career point milestone.
Trine returns to action Thursday against Southwestern University. First face-off is set for 8 p.m.
