Southern Virginia Slips By Pfeiffer Men's Lacrosse, 22-19

Buena Vista, Va. (Feb. 24, 2021) – Southern Virginia University used a big third quarter to break open a close game and withstood a fourth quarter Pfeiffer comeback to take a narrow 22-19 nonconference men's lacrosse win on Wednesday afternoon at Knight Stadium.

The Falcons (1-1) scored the first three goals of the game with Jacob Leone (Raleigh, N.C.) opening the scoring at the 13:50 mark.  Jared Nelson (Vestal, N.Y.) scored a man-up goal less than two minutes later on an assist from Corey Choberka (Vestal, N.Y.).  John Allen (Lebanon, Ohio) put Pfeiffer up 3-0 at the 12:09 mark after receiving a pass from Tucker Hill (Victor, N.Y.).

SVU then scored three straight to tie the game at 3-3, but a two goal spurt from Treven King (Apex, N.C.) and Quinn Becraft (Huntersville, N.C.) regained the 5-3 lead for the Falcons.  The Knights then scored four straight to take the 7-5 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Choberka opened the scoring with an unassisted goal to pull to within 7-6, but Southern Virginia got a pair of goals from Zach Danneman at 12:46 and 8:52 to go up 9-6.  Goals from Becraft (3::29) and Luke Cox  (Winston-Salem, N.C.) (:53) brought the score to 9-8 but an SVU goal with 38 seconds before halftime provided the 10-8 score at recess.

Mike Turner brought the Falcons to within 10-9 with a third quarter goal at 12:43, but the Knights scored five-straight before Nelson halted the streak with a goal at 5:36 followed by a Becraft goal at 5:16 to make it 15-11.  Nelson and Becraft added two more goals, but SVU scored four in the late stages to take the 19-13 lead into the final quarter.

The Falcons scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter, getting one each from Choberka, Nelson and Becraft to pull to 19-16.  Allen would also score two goals in the fourth, with the latter drawing to 21-19, but SVU got the final tally at 1:21 to take the 22-19 win.

Becraft led the way for Pfeiffer, scoring six goals while Nelson had four goals and a pair of assists.

Pfeiffer goalkeeper Matt Stocks (Endwell, N.Y.)  managed 26 saves on the day while facing 75 shots.

The Falcons will return to play on Saturday, Feb. 27 with a 7:00 p.m. road game at Ferrum.