HARROGATE, Tenn. - The Coker College men's lacrosse team's comeback effort fell short to the Lincoln Memorial University Railsplitters Tuesday (Apr. 24) afternoon in the South Atlantic Conference Championship quarterfinals. The sixth seeded Cobras fell to the third seeded Railsplitters by a final score of 13-10.
Lincoln Memorial jumped on the Cobras to start the game, pulling out to a 5-1 lead with one minute remaining in the first quarter. With short time remaining in the frame, the Cobras found a way to string together back-to-back goals to cut the score to 5-3. Long stick midfielder Justin Hopkins ripped a shot from deep for a goal and Charles Stafford followed with a score to bring Lincoln Memorial's momentum to a halt.
The Cobras and Railsplitters exchanged goals throughout the second quarter and Lincoln Memorial held an 8-6 lead with 1:49 remaining in the first half. Coker added a goal to end the half when Ethan Irizarry tallied his fourth goal of the game with 58 seconds remaining in the second stanza. Lincoln Memorial took a slim 8-7 lead into halftime.
Coker began the third quarter strong, recording back-to-back goals to give themselves a 9-8 advantage over Lincoln Memorial for their first lead of the game. Brooks Long and Rylee Marsh were responsible for both of Coker's goals to begin the half. Matt Murphy went on to score Coker's final goal of the quarter and game at the 3:37 mark of the third stanza. The Cobras and Railsplitters headed to the final quarter of action knotted up at 10.
In the fourth quarter, Lincoln Memorial outscored Coker 3-0 for the 13-10 victory.
The Cobras were led offensively by Irizarry, who finished with a team-best four goals. Marsh, Stafford, and Hopkins followed Irizarry with two points apiece. On the defensive end, DeShaun Ormond, Hopkins, and James Brugger finished with two caused turnovers each. Additionally, Stafford led the Cobras with five ground balls, while Hopkins finished with four. In between the pipes, Chris Hagy collected six saves.
The loss concludes Coker's 2018 season.