Corning, NY -- The Elmira College men's lacrosse team (2-5, 1-2 E8) scored 10 second-half goals en route to a 14-7 victory over Houghton College (1-7, 0-3 E8) today. TJ Leach '16 led the Soaring Eagles to their first Empire 8 Conference win this season with a career-high five goals and added an assist while Wyatt Katsos '17 made five saves in between the pipes.
 
Attribute EC's success to their ability to get shots off, as they outshot Houghton 57-28 today. The Purple and Gold's 57 total shots, 39 of which were on target, more than doubles the previous season-high of 26 done twice this season.
 
Despite dominating in shots in the first quarter, 16-3, the Purple and Gold found themselves trailing Houghton, 2-1 after 15 minutes of play. Anthony LaRusso '17 scored the EC men's goal in the first with Eric Hallman '15 being credited with the assist on the play.
 
Hallman tied the game up at 2-2 just 44 seconds into the second quarter. However, four minutes into the quarter the Highlanders would capitalize on a man-up opportunity to regain the 3-2 lead. Skyler Pradelski '15 found the back of the net with 3:54 left in the second quarter to tie the game up at 3-3. Houghton responded by scoring 35 seconds later to get back on top, 4-3. With 51 seconds left in the half, Pradelski found Hallman who was able to deadlock the game once more, this time at 4-4. However, the Highlanders would net one more goal with just 29 seconds left in the half to re-take the lead, 5-4. With nine seconds left in the half, Houghton committed two penalties, a technical and a personal, to give Elmira a two-man advantage heading into halftime.
 
After Houghton killed off the first technical penalty and with nine seconds remaining the personal penalty, Hallman would receive the ball from Leach and scored the man-up goal to tie the game up at five apiece. Nevin Olney '18 scored 2:03 seconds into the third quarter to give Elmira their first lead of the game, 6-5.
 
1:36 later, Pradelski found LaRusso who scored his second goal of the game to put Elmira up, 7-5. Elmira dictated the play for the remaining of the quarter as EC outshot Houghton, 19-5 and scored four more goals to lead 11-5 at the end of the third quarter. Leach scored two of the goals while Pradelski and PJ Tessier '17 also found the back of the net for the Soaring Eagles in the quarter.
 
Leach scored another goal 2:20 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Soaring Eagles a seven goal, 12-5, lead. Houghton capitalized on another man-up opportunity 1:13 later and then scored again with 3:17 left in regulation time to cut EC's lead to 12-7. Leach closed the door on any comeback hopes from the Highlanders by scoring two more goals before the end of the game to give Elmira a 14-7 win. Pradelski and John Bigelow '16 were credited with assists on the final two scoring plays of the game.
 
The Soaring Eagles will compete next this Saturday, April 4th when the EC men travel to Alfred University for another Empire 8 Conference matchup at 1:00 p.m.