SALISBURY, N.C. — The 16th-ranked Catawba College men's lacrosse team toppled No. 5 Anderson, 22-12, on Saturday afternoon at Shuford Stadium, recording the largest margin of victory over a ranked foe in program history.
TEAM STATS
- Catawba (7-2, 2-2 SAC) bombarded its competition with a season-high 58 shots including 34 on-goal tries; Anderson (8-2, 2-2 SAC) attempted 41 shots – putting 22 on frame – for one shy of 100 combined deliveries
- The Catawba Indian defense overpowered the Trojans in a 21-13 turnover battle that featured a 14-6 differential in the opening 30 minutes
- The hosts went a perfect 18-for-18 on the clear, achieving perfection on more than 13 attempts for the first time in nearly a decade, while Anderson posted a 20-for-25 (.800) clip
- AU managed a 38-37 edge in ground balls, but Catawba threatened to cut into the lead late with a 14-pickup fourth quarter
- Cael Petroff accounted for 18 of Catawba's 19 faceoff wins on a .513 success rate, saddling the Trojans with their first faceoff deficit of the season despite Aiden Dixon's above-.500 11-for-21 mark
- Ben LoPiccolo played all 60 minutes in the crease and snatched 10 saves, rivaling AU's 12 total stops by three different netminders; starter Adin Laughlin was relieved at halftime by PJ Flynn, who gave way to Bobby Devenport IV with six minutes left in the game
INDIVIDUAL STATS
- Tanner Stout fronted the offensive onslaught with six goals and one assist, gaining possession with five ground balls and two caused turnovers
- Midfielders Michael Lindsey and Jack Mercer fought through heavy pressure to net four goals apiece on each of their four on-goal attempts
- Garrett Simi hat-tricked his way to a balanced scoresheet with three goals and two assists while Peyton Turner also had a multi-goal day with a pair of strikes
- Micah Stechmiller had one of the finest distribution performances in Catawba history, dishing out six assists in addition to one score, two caused turnovers and four ground balls
- Owen Conway clobbered the Trojan offense, causing five turnovers to produce four ground ball pickups
- Kier McKnight pocketed four ground balls to double his season total, adding a goal to mark back-to-back games with a dart
- Off the faceoff X, Petroff notched a team-high eight ground balls including one he took to the house for his first career goal
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
- The blue and white came out swinging with the Stechmiller-to-Stout connection striking twice in the first three minutes
- Anderson secured the next faceoff and capitalized with a score from Brayden Bushnoe, but a coast-to-coast blast from McKnight canceled it out; 32 seconds later, Cole Sparks replied with another AU strike to pull the score back to 3-2
- Turner tickled the twine to snap a six-minute dry spell that featured various near misses from both sides
- Sparks helped Nash Perry on a Trojan goal that restored the one-score gap, but Lindsey and Stout each hit bullseyes in the final 22 seconds to close the quarter up 6-3
Second Quarter
- Early in the period, a downfield pass out of the Anderson crease misfired into the sky, landing 15 yards ahead of goal into Stout's pocket to set up the junior's fourth blast of the day
- The Trojans scratched another score onto the ledger in the middle of the quarter, but Stout and Mercer went back-to-back to one-up the visitors by lifting the margin to 9-4
- An illegal hit on Mercer during the scoring shot gave Catawba a one-minute man advantage that Anderson ultimately killed, but a three-goal influx from Stechmiller, Lindsey and Simi more than requited the empty power play chance
- A faceoff win and timeout allowed the Trojans to draw up a play 14 seconds until halftime; the try was stuffed, resulting in a Conway-caused takeaway to preserve a 12-4 margin at the break
Third Quarter
- Anderson opened the second half with three swift blows in the first three minutes, adding another a couple possessions later to seriously threaten Catawba Indians' upset bid
- The Trojans were flagged for pushing during a Catawba clear, killing off their third penalty but buying enough time for the hosts to stop the skid on a Lindsey bullet
- Simi found paydirt twice in a two-minute span to bump the score to 15-8, nearly a complete restore of Catawba's halftime advantage
- Again the visitors were penalized – this time for unnecessary roughness on Simi – but neither side converted in the last three minutes
Fourth Quarter
- Stout lifted the fourth-quarter lid with an opening-possession goal assisted by Simi, followed by a faceoff that resulted in a 30-second pushing infraction on AU; Catawba opted to let time tick away, juicing 2:13 until a clock violation
- Lindsey and Mercer hit the twine on consecutive possessions, increasing the separation to double figures at 18-8
- Conway logged his fifth caused turnover prior to two Mercer strikes, giving the hosts their 20th goal in a now-lopsided contest
- Ryan Bitterman and Turner traded scores in the 54th minute before Sparks and Cooper Laughlin brought the deficit back to 10
- Petroff won the ensuing faceoff and charged straight toward the AU net, sending a sharp shot into the back of the net
- Aiden Dixon, Petroff's faceoff nemesis for most of the affair, supplied the response moments later, but the Catawba Indians' double-digit cushion was untouched for a 22-12 final score
NOTES
- The Catawba Indians' last ranked win at Shuford Stadium was against a 19th-ranked Trojan squad in 2022 by a 17-13 margin
- Catawba's all-time record against nationally ranked opponents improves to 12-76 (2-2 this season) with its 22-goal output marking a program high across the 88 matchups
- The victory is Catawba's first over top-five competition since defeating Belmont Abbey 13-9 in 2021; the four-score margin was the program's largest vs. ranked opponents before Saturday
UP NEXT
The Catawba Indians' road through South Atlantic Conference play continues on Wednesday, Apr. 1, at Coker. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Hartsville, S.C.
