Salisbury, N.C. —- The Catawba College men's lacrosse team matched their 2023 win total before finishing the first month of the season on Saturday, rolling to an 18-5 win over Tusculum in their South Atlantic Conference and home opener at Shuford Stadium.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba out-shot Tusculum 62-23

- The Catawba Indians put 39 shots on goal to the Pioneers' 13

- Catawba held a 42-29 advantage in ground balls

- The Catawba Indians recorded 20 turnovers, while forcing 23

- Catawba was 18-for-23 on clears; TU was 17-of-26

- The Catawba Indians won 18 of 27 face offs

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Peyton Turner poured in three goals and three assists with three ground balls 

- Frank Cetrone also recorded three goals and three assists

- Hunter Clarke was the third Catawba Indian with a hat trick, scoring three more goals

- Tigh Metheney also was a multi-goal scorer with two

- Blake Reese was 15-of-22 on face-offs with a game-high nine ground balls

- Kyle Chessock recorded a team-high two caused turnovers; James Crighton and Brady Gauntner combined for eight saves in goal

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST QUARTER

- Catawba jumped on Tusculum in the opening 15 minutes, scoring all four goals of the period

- Jordan Dash scored on a Bakari Neely assist to open the scoring

- Garrett Simi added to the lead before back-to-back Turner goals made it a 4-0 Catawba advantage

SECOND QUARTER

- Turner made it a hat trick at the 13:41 mark of the second quarter; Cetrone's first score of the afternoon had the Catawba Indians up 6-0

- TU's Clay Mendez got the Pioneers on the board near the midway point, but Clarke's score returned the lead to six goals near the 2-minute mark

- Metheney scored in the final minute to push the halftime lead to 8-1

THIRD QUARTER

- Clarke found the back of the net just over four minutes into the second half

- Catawba answered a Tusculum score with a Clarke goal sandwiched between two Cetrone goals, as Catawba led 12-2 heading into the final period

FOURTH QUARTER

- Scores from Metheney, Jackson Braswell and Jack Hart pushed the Catawba lead to 15-2

- The Pioneers scored two goals to cut the deficit to 11, but was answered by goals from Tyler Wedick and Collin Howard

- Gabriel Barker answered a Pioneer goal to join the scoresheet in the final two minutes, giving the Catawba Indians the 18-5 final margin

UP NEXT

- Catawba returns to road non-conference action next week, traveling to Barton for a matchup with the Bulldogs from Truist Stadium at 2 p.m.