ALMA, Mich. – The Alma College men's lacrosse team hosted their home opener for the 2024 season on Saturday, February 24th, on Bahlke Field. The Scots kept the game back and forth for the majority of the game before Lourdes University pulled away in the fourth, defeating Alma by a final score of 13-9.
Alma took the first lead of the game when Kevin Koenn found the back of the net just a minute into the game to give the Scots their first lead of the game, 1-0. The Gray Wolves responded with three unanswered goals of their own to reclaim the lead and put the Scots down two, before the ten-minute mark of the first quarter. Nico Candela scored his first of the game from Drew Gulick to bring Alma back within one just two minutes later before added another goal on a behind the back shot off of a feed from Koenn to tie the game at the eight-minute mark. Both Lourdes and Alma would add one more goal in the high scoring first quarter, with Alma's goal coming from Dylan Smith from Koenn, tying the game at 4-4 at the end of the first.
The Gray Wolves tallied the first goals of the second half again with three unanswered goals in the nine minutes of action to retake the lead. Candela would score his third of the game from MJ Humphreys with five and a half minutes left to put the Scots down two before heading into halftime.
Lourdes opened the second half scoring with a goal five minutes in to extend their lead back to three, trying to pull away from the Scots early in the second half. Candela tallied his fourth and fifth of the game within three minutes of each other to again bring Alma within one, with Gulick assisting on one of them. To end the third quarter and begin the fourth quarter, Lourdes scored four more goals, two coming in the third and two coming in the beginning of the fourth to pull away from Alma as time ticked away. The Scots tried to put together a late fourth quarter push as Candela recorded his sixth of the game with five minutes remaining before Lourdes would tack on their final goal of the game. Alma would score the final goal of the contest with just 23 seconds remaining from Koenn, but it would not be enough as Lourdes would come away with the victory, 13-9.
Candela led the Scots in the scoring and points department as well as in shots with 13 in the game, 10 of which were on net. Both Koenn and Gulick tied with two assists as Smith led the team with five ground balls. On the defensive side of the ball, Patrick Hodges and Jacob Kluk both recorded two caused turnovers to tie for the team lead. Thomas burns made a game-high 11 saves in the cage for the Scots as well.
Alma will now have several days off before hitting the road to Indiana to take on Wabash College on Wednesday, February 28th. Game time is set for a 4:00 PM start.
