HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, VA - Despite having minimal practice on a field in over a week, Hampden-Sydney Lacrosse earned an 8-6 win at Catholic University on Tuesday afternoon. 

Catholic's Tony Fisher opened the scoring at 11:16 on an unassisted tally, and Fleet Jernigan (Kitty Hawk, NC / First Flight) tacked on a goal of his own at 2:16, but that would be all the goals in the first quarter. The second quarter looked like it would be a higher scoring affair in the opening minutes as each H-SC and Catholic posted a goal in the first four minutes, but neither squad was able to find the back of the net until Corey Mavromatis (Virginia Beach, VA / Cape Henry) fed Mike Funk (Chantilly, VA / Middleburg) for a score at 3:17, good to give H-SC a 3-2 lead going into halftime. 

H-SC opened the third frame with a Thomas Armstrong (Charlotte, NC / Charlotte Latin) goal at 12:08 but defenses took over, holding both sides without a goal until 5:44 when James Hughes (Apex, NC / Middle Creek) finished off an Abbot Wallenborn (Crozet, VA / Western Albemarle) pass, his second assist of the quarter, to put the Tigers on top 5-2. Catholic didn't back down and Jonathan Curran needed just 29 seconds to make it a 5-3 game, and he scored just over a minute later to send the game into the fourth with H-SC leading 5-4. 

H-SC started off the fourth with the ball due to a Victor Lacata holding penalty just before the third quarter buzzer, and the Tigers took advantage of the 30-second man-up opportunity as Armstrong scored his third goal of the game at 14:32. Catholic wasted no time negating that score as John Blee put one in the net just 23 seconds later. The two teams one again traded quick back-to-back tallies with Armstrong scoring at 11:18 and Curran at 10:57, but H-SC still led 7-6.  

The defenses settled in from there, but each team managed to string together one possession each with multiple shots over the next eight minutes. After H-SC managed to avert Catholic scoring chances by forcing all three of the Cardinals' shots wide, the Tigers secured the ball and cleared it, calling a timeout at 2:45. The play call proved to work as Wallenborn posted the game-winner at 2:26. While the Tigers struggled on face-offs all game long, they came up with the biggest one of the game after Wallenborn's goal. The Tigers ran off over a minute of game clock before attempting a shot. The Tigers looked to have turned over the ball at the 53-second mark, but Catholic's Alex Quicksell committed a 30-second unsportsmanlike penalty enabling H-SC to run out the clock. 

Armstrong paced the Tigers with four goals and three ground balls, and Wallenborn added on a goal and two assists. David Noftsinger (Richmond, VA / Collegiate School) got the start and net and responded with 11 saves. 

Jonathan Curran was the only Cardinal with multiple points as he scored three times, and Matt Michalski went 12-for-16 on face-offs. Harrison Holak notched 15 saves. 

Catholic won the ground ball battle 28-19 thanks to winning 13-of-17 face-offs.