GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's lacrosse team lost an 11-10 non-conference matchup to the Mount Union Purple Raiders on Saturday.
 
Selom Kalin-Samlan (Gaithersburg, Md./Watkins Mill) scored the first goal of the 2020 season when he fired his shot past the Mount Union defense, giving the Tomcats a 1-0 advantage with 13:16 left in the first quarter.
 
A little over four minutes later, Nick Sylvis (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) capitalized on a pass from Derrick Jackson (Baltimore, Md./Overlea) to double Thiel's lead with 8:35 left to play.
 
Eli Ciotti scored an assisted goal to get Mount Union on the board, trimming Thiel's lead to 2-1 before the end of the first frame.
 
Andrew Monks (Butler, Pa./Butler) took advantage of a man-up situation to extend the Tomcat lead 3-1 with 12:49 left in the second quarter.
 
The Purple Raiders scored three goals in less than two minutes to grab their first lead of the game, 4-3 with a little less than 11 minutes left in the first half.
 
Thiel would score three of the game's next four goals, led by Liam Stickle (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkston) who scored two of those goals during that stretch to give the Tomcats a 6-5 lead heading into the halftime break.
 
Sylvis led Thiel in the third quarter as the Tomcats outscored the Purple Raiders 4-2 to hold a 10-7 lead at the end of the third frame.
 
Between the end of the third quarter throughout the fourth, Mount Union scored four unanswered goals to steal the road win.
 
Slyvis finished his debut as a Tomcat with a team-high four goals.
 
Stickle and Andrew Monks (Butler, Pa./Butler) both scored a pair of goals. Monks also passed out three assists, finishing with a team-best five points.
 
Jeffery Karnoff chipped in with a goal and two helpers for a multi-point performance of his own.  
 
Mount Union's Logan Gebhart led all scorers with five goals.
 
Defensively, goaltender Cole O'Connor (Midlothian, Va./James River) recorded 21 saves while in net.
 
The Tomcats will be back in action on Saturday when they take on the Oberlin Yeomen on the road. Faceoff is set for 3:00 p.m.