ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Alma College men's lacrosse team hopped back the road for another contest versus Augustana College (IL). The Scots were defeated by one goal for the second-straight contest, this time dropping by a final score of 13-12.

The Scots opened up the scoring just under eight minutes into the first quarter with a goal from Anar Tumurbaatar assisted by Haden Johnson, putting Alma up 1-0. The Vikings responded later in the first with a goal of their own and tied the game up at ones heading into the second quarter.

Less than a minute into the second frame, midfielder Ryan O'Loughlin added a tally for the Scots to regain the lead before the Scots were given a man-up opportunity. During the man-up chance, Kevin Koenn sent a shot past the goalie on a pass for his second-straight game with a man-up goal. Tumurbaatar assisted on the Koenn goal to record his 100th point of his career during the play, moving him to 11th all-time for career points. The Vikings would then string together six unanswered goals throughout the second quarter to take a 7-3 lead over the Scots. Alma added another tally from MJ Humphreys before the half ended to cut into the Augustana lead and head into the half trailing 7-4.

Returning from halftime, the Vikings added another four goal to increase the lad over the Scots, but Alma was not ready to let the game slip away from them. With another man-up opportunity, Byron Weber found the back of the net to cut into the Viking lead. Three minutes later, Johnson added his second of the game on a pass from Koenn and Alma was finding some momentum. Augustana slowed the Scots momentum with a goal, but Alma didn't let them slow them down for the rest of the game. Alma scored the last two goals of the third quarter with goals coming from Johnson and Weber to head into the fourth tailing 12-8.

The fourth quarter proved to be Alma's for the first ten minutes as they kept Augustana off the board. Humpreys scored his second of the game less than three minutes into the quarter to bring the Scots within three before Johnson scored his fourth of the game. Trailing 12-10, Drew Gulick caught a pass from Ezra Leppanen which set him up for a shot that was able to fly past the goalie and bring Alma within one with nine minutes remaining. In the final five minutes of the game, Johnson was able to add on to his solid gameplay and tie the game for Alma with a shot in front of the net that made it to the back of the net and Alma was eying down the final minutes for a comeback win. The comeback would be stopped just short as the Vikings scored with one minute remaining for their only goal of the quarter to take a 13-12 lead. In the final seconds of the game, Tumurbaatar hit the post with the final shot of the game and the Scots would drop their second game in a row by a single goal in the final minutes of gameplay.

Johnson ended the game with five points to lead the way for the Scots. Weber led the team with five ground balls as Cole Pearson had a game-high three caused turnovers. Garin Stearns played the full 60 minutes for Alma in the cage and recorded 19 saves, also for a game-high. Alma was 50% on man-up opportunities as they went 2-4 on the day.

The Scots will now prepare for the conference slate of their season, starting with a matchup against Trine University on Saturday, April 8th at 1 PM.

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Story Credit: Eli Pinter, Sports Information Intern