Columbia MLAX Falls on the Road at #4 Reinhardt

PHOTO GALLERY Courtesy of Thomas Amick

WALESKA, Ga. - The Columbia College inaugural men's lacrosse team fell 27-2 on the road at 4th ranked Reinhardt University Thursday afternoon in Georgia. 

This was the final road game of the season for the Koalas as their final six games are all at home from Younts Stadium starting with this Saturday at 3:00 pm as CC hosts TN Wesleyan University.

RU improves to 4-0 overall while CC drops to 1-8 overall and 0-4 in the conference. All four AAC opponents that Columbia has faced this season have been ranked in the top 10 in the country in the NAIA, showing that the Koalas have had a very difficult schedule to begin their program. The AAC is widely known as the top conference in all of the NAIA.

A slow start by No. 4 Reinhardt saw the Koalas play quality defense to start off the first quarter holding the Eagles scoreless over the first 5 and a half minutes before RU got on the board and led 5-0 after the opening quarter.

Reinhardt, however, extended their lead to nine after the first five mintues of the second quarter before taking a 14-0 lead at the break. Eight goals in the third quarter from RU was followed by two more in the fourth before the Koalas got on the board with 6:25 to play as freshman attacker Tanner Kuykendall scored unassisted. Columbia then added the final goal of the game as freshman midfielder Noah Norwood scored unassisted with 17 seconds to go. Norwood led the team with five shots out of the 16 total that Columbia attempted.

Senior goalie Fin Landi made 8 saves on 31 shots on goal over 50 minutes of action while fellow goalie Joshua Nguyen made one save on 5 shots on goal in the fourth quarter. Freshman attacker Gavin Gordon won three face-offs while recording one ground ball with two shots on goal. Freshman defender Gavin Hunt then led the defense picking up three ground balls with a caused turnover.

William Tanks pictured below, courtesy of Thomas Amick