GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Trine University men's lacrosse team will advance to the semifinals of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Tournament after holding off a late push by their hosts from Calvin University and securing a 10-9 victory.
The Knights came out strong, scoring three goals in the first period and ultimately taking 3-1 lead into the second. Rocco Curatola scored the lone goal for the Thunder during the quarter with just 2:28 remaining.
The second was a different story, with Trine scoring three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead of their own into halftime. Riley Fischer scored the first and assisted on the third while Xavier Huber and Landen Kruse each scored a goal of their own.
Kruse continued the streak of goals for the Thunder to start the second half of play, again with an assist from Fischer. Chris Molnar and Kramer Zastrow added two more before the home team finally had an answer. The pair each scored again following the Calvin goal, building the lead to its largest of the day at 9-4. The Knights scored the final three goals of the third quarter to cut that lead to 9-7 for the start of the final period.
With just over 11 minutes remaining in the game, Vin Pantano set up Huber for his second goal of the day, giving the team a 10-7 lead. It ended up being the game winning goal, with Calvin scoring two more goals for the final score of 10-9.
Trine posted eight minutes of scoreless play over to end the game with the win. The defensive effort throughout the game was led by a herculean effort from Zachary Norris who finished with six caused turnovers in the game, tied for the second most in program history. He added three groundballs to finish tied for second on the team.
Also playing a crucial role was Luke Arnold who played the game in net for the Thunder. He finished the game with 11 saves on his way to the win. He also led the team with four groundballs.
All told Trine had 17 caused turnovers spread among eight different players. Mason Kaufmann was second on the team with three, while Curatola and J'Oshua Shaw each posted two.
The Thunder improve to 13-5 overall and will advance to the semifinal round of the tournament following the victory. The team will face top-seeded Hope College in their next game. The road contest is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29.
