ALMA, Mich. – The Alma College men's lacrosse hosted their first home game of the season against Carthage College (WI) on Saturday, February 25th. The Scots hung around the entirety of the game but fell to the Firebirds by a final score of 12-10.

The Scots opened the scoring for the game with a goal from Anar Tumurbaatar less than three minutes into the game to put Alma up 1-0.  Carthage would respond with a goal four minutes later to tie the game before Haden Johnson added another tally for Ala to give them the lead once again. Alma then caused a Carthage turnover which led to an Aaron Zettel goal to give Alma a two-goal lead. The firebirds ended up responding with two goals to end the first quarter deadlocked at three apiece. 

In the second quarter, Carthage added two more tallies to take their first lead of the game before Byron Weber answered back bringing the Carthage lead to one. Alma and Carthage would battle throughout the rest of the quarter but the Firebirds would tack on two more goals to go into the end of the half up 7-4.

Starting off the third, Lucas Gratz scored his first of the game to bring Alma within two. Carthage would take their largest lead of the game with just over nine minutes remaining in the third, putting themselves up 9-5 over the Scots. Kevin Koenn answered back less than a minute later with a goal that was assisted by Gratz to bring life back to Alma. With less than four minutes remaining in the quarter, Johnson scored his second of the game from a feed from Ezra Leppanen, sending the Scots into the fourth only trailing by two goals. 

Carthage started out the final quarter with a goal to stretch the lead back to three before Gratz would record his second goal of the game putting Alma within two again. The Scots kept hanging around but Carthage added two more following the Gratz goal to increase their lead again to 12-8 but Alma was not finished. Johnson scored his third of the game with just over three minutes remaining to give the Scots a late chance at making a comeback. Johnson again scored with a minute remaining to keep Alma within striking distance but time would prove to be an enemy to the Scots as they would fall to the Firebirds by two at the end of the game. 

Johnson led the Scots in points with four goals total as Gratz followed behind him with two goals and an assist. Byron Weber would lead the Scots with five ground balls and four players tied with one caused turnover for the game. Garin Stearns made his collegiate debut making 14 saves total. 

Alma will now travel south as they compete against Huntingdon University in Alabama on March 1st. The game is set to begin at 7 PM EST.

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Story Credit: Eli Pinter, Sports Information Intern