HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Adam Golia accounted for five points to lead the Railsplitters (8-6, 4-4 SAC) to an 11-9 victory over the Coker Cobras (4-10, 1-7 SAC) in the regular-season finale on Saturday at the Coker Athletic Field.
Lincoln Memorial – winners in three of its last four matches – will be the No. 6 seed for the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Championship. The Railsplitters will open their first-ever SAC tournament with a trip to Tusculum on Tuesday, April 25. That match gets underway at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Park.
"We're very fortunate to walk away with a big road win going into the conference tournament," head coach
Ryan Kuhn said. "Taking today's momentum into this week is huge for us."
Golia scored four goals and added an assist to power the Railsplitters' offense.
Kyle Arcuri chipped in two goals and an assist, while
Robert Tucker handed out a pair of helpers.
Khanan Bodley had a goal and an assist, while
Dylan Neisler,
Billy Kopsky,
Jared Courchene and
Tylor Justin produced a goal apiece.
The Cobras were led by Garrett Kilgore, Brooks Long and Vinny Magro, who each contributed two goals and an assist. Rylee Marsh added a goal and two assists, while Tim Wright and Patrick Timothee pitched in a goal apiece.
Joe Medel made 14 saves in the match to notch his eighth win of the season, including five in the first quarter to help Lincoln Memorial jump out to an early lead.
"Our goalie and defense made some huge stops for us at key points that led to some really big goals which helped give us momentum," said Kuhn.
The Railsplitters never trailed, but Coker made life difficult on the visitors by tying the match on three different occasions in the first half and pulling within one early in the fourth quarter.
"Coker had a great game plan that forced us to make some adjustments on both sides of the ball," said Kuhn. "We knew they would be tough in the middle of the field, which really forced our midfielders to step up from a defensive standpoint."
Lincoln Memorial jumped ahead early as Neisler scored 57 seconds into the match and Golia made it a 2-0 lead with his first goal at the 11:09 mark. However, goals from Long and Marsh brought the score back level with five minutes left in the first quarter. Kopsky scored with 90 seconds remaining to help LMU hold a 3-2 lead at the end of one.
The two teams traded man-up goals to start the second quarter before Magro tallied with 9:02 left in the half to draw the match even at four apiece. That score held until Courchene and Arcuri pitched in goals in the final 22 seconds of the half to send the Railsplitters into the break with a 6-4 lead.
Justin scored at the 12:06 mark of the third quarter to give the Railsplitters their largest lead of the match at 7-4, and Golia kept the margin at three with another goal less than three minutes later. However, Kilgore scored with 48 seconds left in the third and Long found the back of the net early in the fourth to trim the lead to 8-7.
The Railsplitters answered by holding Coker scoreless for a more than eight-minute stretch. During that drought, Lincoln Memorial increased its lead to 10-7 on goals from Arcuri and Bodley. The Cobras finally got back on the board with Kilgore's goal with 5:30 left, but Golia scored again for the Railsplitters with less than 90 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
The Railsplitters won despite going just 8-for-20 at the face-off x and seeing the Cobras account for a 31-23 edge in groundball recoveries. Lincoln Memorial did, however, go a perfect 25-for-25 on clears while forcing 12 turnovers.
The win avenged a heartbreaking 12-9 loss to the Cobras that ended the Railsplitters' 2016 campaign. It was also LMU's first-ever win over Coker, who captured an 18-9 win in the first meeting between the two programs in 2015.
