LEXINGTON- The Transylvania Men's Lacrosse team was in their most intense game of the season thus far after dueling with in-state rival Centre College. The Pioneers would fall just one goal short today in the 7-8 loss. The Pioneers move to 4-5 on the season as the program record now sits at 3-8 all time with Centre, who currently have the best overall record in the SAA. This game would be heavily defensive dependent as the Pioneers would see strong play from defender Ben Marcum and Ben Pund.

The Pioneers would strike first in today's match as Ryan Geisler would score the teams first 2, first assisted by Tai Stormont, then assisted by Andrew Welch. Kade Kruger would pick up where he left off last game as he had a hat trick against Capital, today having a dominant offensive showing with 2 goals, at this point knotting up the game 4-4. 

From here defense would be the name of the game as no goals were scored in the entirety of the 3rd quarter, with a total time of 26 minutes of game time with no scoring. Ben Marcum would anchor the defense with timely off ball pressure and surgical on ball defense. Marcum would hold his matchup, totaling 2 caused turnovers on the night. The Pioneers would cause a total of 11 caused turnovers on the night. Ben Pund would shine as he is coming off a career high 17 save game, missing that mark by 1 save today, as he totaled 16 saves. Pund now sits at 99 saves on the season already sitting at 5th all time in program history as Connor Haney '22 sits above him with 127 saves.

This game would come down to the wire as the Pioneers fell behind by 3 with 9:41 on the clock, going on to score twice due to back to back Man Up opportunity goals. These Man Up goals came from Casey Fagan, and Josh Harney, setting the game at 7-8.

This rivalry between Transylvania and Centre was on full display, making tonight's game a learning point moving forward for the Pioneers. Head coach Logan Otto had this to  say after: "What a game! Our men battled till the end and had a few opportunities that didn't go our way. A loss like this is actually an opportunity to learn and build. I am beyond excited to see our guys take the next step. I am super proud of the play of Ben Pund and Benjamin Marcum. Those guys made some unbelievable plays."      

The Pioneers are back at home this weekend as they take on Kalamazoo Saturday March 30th at 12 noon.