Seton Hill opened their 2016 season on the road at Wingate on Saturday afternoon in Wingate, NC. SHU used a 5-1 advantage in the third quarter in route to a season opening 13-12 road victory.
Wingate took a quick 2-0 lead on the Griffins with two goals in the game's first five minutes. SHU cut the lead to 2-1 with a goal from
Shane Pettke with just under 10 minutes to play in the quarter. Fifteen seconds later
Nick Neferis tied the score at two with a goal from
Jonah Gutentag. Wingate responded to take a 3-2 lead before the Griffins scored the final three goals of the quarter to take a 5-3 lead after one quarter of play.
Sean Stanners,
Bennett Johnson and
Hunter Hayes scored goals for the Griffins.
SHU increased their lead to 6-3 when
Garret Howell scored with 11:48 to play in the second quarter. Wingate then responded with a six goal run of their own to take a 9-6 lead with just over a minute to play in the first half. Stanners got his second of the contest with 26 seconds to play in the half as SHU entered the halftime break down 9-7.
The third quarter was all Griffins as they held a 5-1 advantage in goals. Howell opened the scoring with a goal at the 12:20 mark.
Erik Hultgren followed less than a minute later to tie the score at nine. Hayes then netted the HT with two goals to put SHU back in the lead with 4:09 to play in the third quarter. Pettke got his second of the game to increase the SHU lead to 12-9 with 3:17 left in the third period. Wingate got the last goal of the quarter to trim the lead to 12-10.
Wingate cut the lead to one goal with 6:19 to play in the final quarter. They then tied the score at 12 with 4:52 to play in the game. After the SHU won the faceoff, Wingate made a save before
Zach Hartmann scored the game winning goal with 2:59 to play in the game. Howell assisted on the game winner. The Griffin defense then held on for the win.
SHU outshot Wingate 39-36 in the contest. The Griffins won the ground ball battle 32-30. SHU was 0-3 on the power play while Wingate was 4-5.
Hunter Hayes led the Griffins with 3 goals.
Garret Howell,
Sean Stanners and
Shane Pettke each added 2 goals. Howell also finished with 3 assists.
Merritt Bailey recorded 12 saves in the win.
SHU will stay on the road next weekend when they travel to Chestnut Hill next Saturday.