Box Score GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's lacrosse team won its fourth straight contest Tuesday in a 17-12 victory over La Roche College. It was Thiel's men's lacrosse program's first ever win over the La Roche Redhawks.
 
The Tomcats improved to 6-4 on the season with the win while La Roche fell to 1-7.
 
The Tomcats jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after Carmen Papa (Salamanca, N.Y./Salamanca Central) netted an unassisted marker just three minutes and four seconds into the game. Freshman Timothy O'Shea (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) found the back of the net a minute and a half later to give Thiel a 2-0 edge.
 
La Roche scored its first goal of the game at the 10:34 mark to slice Thiel's lead in half. Thiel then responded with three straight goals from Papa, Francis Ahia (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) and Alex Casile (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) to make it a 5-1 game.
 
After the Redhawks scored back-to-back goals to make it 5-3, Thiel's Kendell Harrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Robert E. Lee), O'Shea and Papa netted goals to end the quarter with an 8-3 lead.
 
The second quarter started out even better for the Tomcats as they scored three goals to open the period. Zachary Macurak (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park), O'Shea and Jacob Paviol (Falls Village, Conn./Housatonic Valley Regional) each netted a goal during the stretch to put the Tomcats ahead, 11-3. La Roche outscored Thiel 2-0 over the final eight minutes of the first half to trail at the half, 11-5.
 
La Roche outscored Thiel 7-6 in the second half but could not come close to tying the 6-goal lead that Tomcats enjoyed at halftime.
 
O'Shea led the Tomcats in scoring with five goals while Papa and Casile each scored four goals. Both O'Shea and Papa also had three assists in the contest, while Casile added two helpers.
 
Ryan Weldon (Centereach, N.Y./Newfield) played all 60 minutes between the pipes for the Tomcats, picking up the win with a season-best 19 saves.
 
Dustin Reykdal paced La Roche with three goals. Bryce Wells, Jean Thouin and Crawford Healey each notched two goals for the Redhawks. Eugen LaBorde took the loss. In 60 minutes of work, he made 17 stops.
 
Thiel led in many statistical categories, including shots on goal (34-31), saves (19-17) and ground balls (50-49). Thiel also converted on 7-of-10 man-up chances.
 
The Tomcats will return to action Saturday when they travel to Westerville, Ohio to take on Otterbein College. The contest is set for a 1 p.m. start.