GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – A 10-goal second quarter – and 16-goal first half – was exactly what the Newberry College men's lacrosse team (10-4, 6-3 South Atlantic Conference) needed in the regular-season finale on Saturday at Tusculum, as they won their fifth straight contest, 22-14.

The win guarantees the Wolves the No. 4 seed in the conference, meaning they will host a SAC Quarterfinal game on Tuesday, April 25.

James Osorio (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) was the point-man on Saturday, registering five goals and two assists for Newberry. Connor Bates (Boiling Springs, S.C.), Curtis Bukta (Ontario, Canada) and Briley Maxwell (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) each had hat tricks, while Baker Westmoreland (Charlotte, N.C.) had 2 goals.

Six Wolves scored one goal apiece: Shane Galt (Weston, FLA.), Shane Halliwell (Cambridge, Ontario Canada), Owen Harrison (Apex, N.C.), Scott Reed (Ontario, Canada), Zach Thompson (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) and Jack Travassos (Ontario, Canada).

Newberry scored five of the game's first six goals with Bukta breaking the ice three minutes into the game, the assist credited to Osorio.

Westmoreland followed the first one some 30 seconds later after Maxwell found him for a score. Tusculum (4-10, 0-8 SAC) scored their first at the 9:26 mark before Osorio tallied his first of the evening with an unassisted man-up goal a few minutes later.

Bates followed with a goal directly off the next face off, and Osorio fired a howitzer past the Pioneer goaltender for his second goal – Osorio and Bates' three combined goals came in a 37-second span to give the Wolves a 5-1 lead.

Two straight Tusculum goals cut their deficit in half, but Westmoreland scored his second of the evening with 38 seconds to play in the first to give the Wolves a 6-3 lead after 15 minutes.

Travassos' first goal of the season opened the second-quarter scoring, and Harrison followed that up with his second goal of 2023 to give Newberry an 8-3 advantage.

Two of the next three goals were scored by the Pioneers, which is when the Wolves went on a tremendous run: Seven consecutive goals over the final 9:17 of the first half gave them a 16-5 lead heading into the break. Three of those were scored by Osorio – two of them man-up goals – while Bukta, Bates, Reed and Maxwell tallied the others.

Bukta opened the second half with his third goal only 42 seconds in, though Tusculum answered with a pair to trim the Newberry lead to 10.

Back-to-back goals from Maxwell just 16 seconds apart and one from Halliwell gave the Wolves their largest lead of the game at 20-7 with 6:46 remaining in the third. The Pioneers then held Newberry scoreless the rest of the quarter while scoring twice themselves to make it an 11-goal game at the start of the final quarter.

Tusculum outscored the Wolves 5-2 over the final 15 minutes, with Newberry's goals coming from Thompson and Galt – it was Galt's first collegiate goal – for the 22-14 final.

The testy battle featured 16 penalties between the two teams – 10 for Newberry, six for Tusculum. Newberry converted 3 of 6 man-up opportunities, Tusculum 5 of 8, and the Wolves outshot the Pioneers 45-37 while dominating the ground ball category 44-28.

Newberry will square off with an opponent to be determined at Setzler Field on Tuesday, April 25 in the SAC Quarterfinals.