Rock Island, Ill. – The Alma College men's lacrosse team fell, 10-8, to Augustana College (IL) in their season opener Saturday (Feb. 16). Junior Connor Alley (Powell, Ohio / Worthington Kilbourne) scored three goals for the Scots as Alma dropped to 0-1 on the 2019 season while Augustana moved to 1-0.

What Happened

• The Vikings came out fast with three goals in the opening three minutes. Junior Tom Needham (Saline, Mich. / Saline) was able to answer by netting the first goal of the season for Alma. At the end of the first quarter, the Scots found themselves down, 5-1. 
• Alma started to gain momentum in the second. Alley scored back-to-back goals to cut the lead to two. Junior Chase Hunyadi (Pepper Pike, Ohio / University School) got the Scots to within one before the end of the half on a goal set up by senior Jared Nycz (Buffalo, N.Y. / Iroquois). Junior Hank Wickley (Petaluma, Calif. / Case Grande) made four saves during the second period to keep Augustana off the scoreboard.  
• Just a few minutes into the start of the second half, Alma went up on the man advantage and junior Trevor Bailey (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. / Sault Area) was able to bury one to tie the game at five each. The Scots though gave up one later in the third with a man up to give the lead back to the Vikings. With the score, 7-5, Alley earned his hat trick with a goal in the final minute of the quarter.  
• Augustana was able to push the lead back to two early in the fourth. Nycz set up Bailey to make it a one goal game with just over 10 minutes remaining but the Vikings responded with a pair of goals. Freshman Timothy Gearig (Vicksburg, Mich. / Vicksburg) scored his first career goal of his collegiate career with 10 seconds remaining in the game but it was too little too late for the Scots. 

Notables 

• Nycz was the team's leading point scorer with four assists. Bailey was the most aggressive attacker with a team-high 11 shots with five of them being on goal. 
• Wickley made 11 stops on Viking shots today. 
• Alma forced 25 turnovers while giving up only 23. 
• The Scots had 13 shots in fourth quarter alone, while only 20 in the rest of the game. 

What He Said

"Not the end result we were looking for today by any means. But to be honest, the weather over the past two weeks has really hampered our individual and team development. Weather can impact some things, but not others. It can't impact our effort, attitude or commitment. We battled hard, never gave up and put ourselves in a position to try to get a win late. It didn't go our way, but I love what this team will look once we get back out on Bahlke Field this week." 

-Head Coach Michael Kinney  

Up Next 

Alma has a week off before their home opener against Benedictine University (IL) on Saturday (Feb. 23). Faceoff scheduled for 2 p.m.