PITTSBURGH, Pa. - On Saturday, the Cougars (6-3, 1-1 PAC) faced one of their toughest opponents on the schedule, the Grove City Pioneers (4-7, 3-0 PAC). The Cougars fell behind early and despite attempts, the Cougars were unable to comeback falling by a final score of 18-7.


The Wolverines started the game scoring the first five goals of the game before Cody Randal scored his fourth goal of the season after winning the faceoff and taking the ball all the way to the net. The Wolverines then added three more goals to end the first quarter leading 8-1.


In the second quarter, the Cougars started to mount a comeback after the Wolverines scored the first goal of the quarter, the Cougars scored the next three goals. Jacob Lubawy broke the ten goal threshold with his unassisted goal to get the momentum started. Jackson Adkins followed that up with his first goal of the season assisted by Gavin Loshnowsky. Thomas Whitaker scored his 33rd goal of the season to cap the run assisted by Owen Millar. The Wolverines took a 9-4 lead into the break following the Cougars run.


The Wolverines scored the first goal of the third quarter followed closely by Thomas Whitaker scoring his second goal of the game, 34th of the season, assisted by Brady Rigdon to cut the lead back to five. The Wolverines scored the next two goals before Jacob Lubawy scored his second goal of the game, 11th of the season, assisted by Brady Rigdon. The Wolverines scored the following two goals extending their lead to 14-6 at the end of the third quarter.


Thomas Whitaker completed his hat trick assisted by Jesse Corser-James as the Cougars scored first in the fourth quarter. Grove City answered back with the final four goals of the game and pushed the final score to 18-7.


The Cougars were led offensively by Whitaker's three goal performance. Jacob Lubawy (2G) and Brady Rigdon (2A) each recorded two points. Cody Randal and Jesse Corser-James each led the Cougars with six ground balls. Corser-James also had a team high three caused turnovers lifting his season total to 28. James Cipollone made 15 saves in net for the Cougars ending the game with a .455 save rate.


The Cougars will be back in action on Wednesday April 1st when they host Westminster at 4 PM at UPMC Graham Field.