Greeneville, Tenn.----The 14th-ranked Wingate University Bulldogs used a huge 4-0 fourth quarter run to claim an exciting 10-9 victory over the 19th-ranked Tusculum College Pioneers in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action from Pioneer Field Saturday. WU sophomore attack Alex Llerandi (Marietta, Ga.) scored his 27th goal of the season to give the visiting Bulldogs a 10-9 advantage with 2:46 remaining in the contest for the comeback triumph.
 
Wingate ends the 2017 regular season campaign on a four-game win streak, finishing 11-3 overall and 6-2 in the SAC. Tusculum ends its regular season slate at 10-3 overall and 6-2 in league play. Both teams will await word on the pairings for the SAC Tournament by league officials tonight.
 
"I am very proud of the boys for never giving up and fighting hard until the end," Wingate head men's lacrosse coach Tim Boyle says. "This is a tough place to play and Tusculum is a very hard-nosed, gritty group of kids who work very well together."
 
WU redshirt senior attack Ryan Vogrig (Vancouver, B.C.) led all scorers with a season-high four tallies to power the Bulldog offensive attack. Junior attack Jeremy Sullivan (Crofton, Md.) and sophomore attack Ryan Ormerod (Lake Mary, Fla.) finished with two goals each. Llerandi and sophomore midfielder Daniel Godwin (Greensboro, N.C.) both added one tally.
 
Wingate senior attack Austin Murphy (Orillia, Ontario) finished with two assists in the contest. His first-quarter assist made him Wingate's all-time leading point scorer. Murphy enters next week's SAC tournament with 221 career points. For Tusculum, junior midfielder Nate Wade (Victoria, B.C.) led the Pioneer scoring efforts with two scores, while seven other Pioneers had one goal each.
 
Tusculum got on the board first with a goal from junior attack Chris Ryan (Old Bridge, N.J.) to give the hosts an early 1-0 lead with 13:16 in the opening quarter. Vogrig tied the contest at 1-1 two minutes later before the Pioneers netted three straight tallies to take a 4-1 lead at the 11:56 mark of the second quarter.
 
Back-to-back Wingate goals from Vogrig and Sullivan trimmed the WU deficit to 4-3 at the 8:38 mark; however, Tusculum answered with two consecutive scores of its own to extend the advantage out to 6-3 with 11:43 left in the third stanza. The Bulldogs again cut the margin down to one goal at 6-5, but the Pioneers continued to add to their advantage with two more tallies to make it 8-5 with two minutes to go in the third.
 
Vogrig netted his third goal of the day with 25 seconds left on the third quarter clock to slice the deficit to 8-6 entering the final frame of play. With Wingate trailing 9-6 at the 14:13 mark of the fourth stanza, the 'Dogs rallied with four unanswered tallies in the fourth quarter to grab the late 10-9 advantage with 2:46 remaining. The WU defense held strong for the impressive comeback triumph.
 
"We are excited to come away with the win," Boyle says. "We are looking forward to getting back to work next week and get better at what we need to do, so we can have success moving forward."
 
Wingate junior goalkeeper Will Sheridan (Woodstock, Ga.) played the full 60 minutes and tallied 10 saves to earn the win. Sheridan ended the 2017 regular season with a 9-3 record in the cage. Tusculum senior goalie Kevin Haggerty (Suffern, N.Y.) posted 12 saves and took the loss. He also went the distance Saturday.
 
The Bulldogs outshot the Pioneers 35-29, while maintaining the 22-19 edge in shots on goal. Tusculum won 13-10 in face-offs, but Wingate held the 26-23 victory in ground balls. The 'Dogs forced five turnovers compared to the Pioneers' three. Both teams had one man-up opportunity, but did not score on either chance.
 
(Wingate University athletic media relations/sports network student assistant Jackson Kaplan contributed this article. A sophomore from Raleigh, Kaplan is a Communication Studies major at Wingate.)