HARROGATE, Tenn. - The Davenport men's lacrosse team took the field for the second time this season with a trip to Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday morning. The Panthers had their own in a back-and-forth first half trailing 7-6 at the break. However, the Railsplitters turned it up a notch in the second half for a 19-11 decision. DU is now 0-2 overall while LMU picked up their first win of the season (1-3).

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Panthers got on the board first at the 13:08 mark of the first quarter as Avery Buckius scored with an assist from Jordan Caskenette. Ian Cook responded with the first of his six goals on the day at the 11:38 mark from Reggie Golfin. Keelan McKouen put the Panthers back up 2-1 at 8:29. The Railsplitters would then score the next three goals to lead 4-2 after the first quarter.

Caskenette started the second quarter scoring for DU at 14:38 from Blake Gibson-McDonald. LMU scored the next two goals to lead 6-3 with 12:56 left until halftime. DU then put together a steady couple of minutes scoring three straight times to tie it up at 6-6 with 4:05 left in the quarter. Trent Eichbauer, Buckius and Caskenette scored the goals for the Panthers and all were unassisted. LMU got the final score of the quarter at 3:26 from Robert Tucker to lead 7-6 at halftime.

The Panthers came out of the locker room and scored first again to begin a quarter. McKouen put one home at 13:55 from Gibson-McDonald. Lincoln Memorial then put their foot on the gas and scored the next nine goals to put things out of reach for DU. LMU scored five times to end the third quarter and four more times to begin the fourth quarter. Five different players scored in the third while Cook and Sam Skousen each scored twice to start the fourth quarter.

Gibson-McDonald stopped the run at 9:15 of the fourth from Caskenette. LMU scored the next three goals and then DU finished the game with three goals on their own in the final 3:58. Adam Smellie, Caskenette and Keagan King put the ball in the net with Gibson-McDonald assisting on two of those goals.

BY THE NUMBERS
Daniel Milano in the cage finished with 11 saves. LMU finished with 41 shots while Davenport had 36. DU edged out the home team 35-34 in ground balls. Jake Hodges and Connor Foster each had five ground balls for DU. The Railsplitters owned a 21-13 edge in face-off wins. Foster won eight of his 24 chances while Joseph Bragg went 5-for-10. The extra-man opportunities went 2-6 for DU and 2-5 for LMU. Caskenette and Gibson-McDonald each had five points on the day. Caskenette led the team with three goals. 

UP NEXT
Davenport (0-2) will continue on the road as they travel to Romeoville, Ill. for a Saturday, Feb. 29 showdown with Lewis University. The Flyers are currently 1-2 overall and have dropped their last two. The face-off is slated for 2:00 pm eastern and 1:00 pm local time.