Ben Anastos tied his season high with 18 saves and Winston Chodnicki won 23 of 31 faceoffs to help the Colorado College men's lacrosse team fend off a furious Southern Virginia University comeback and escape Knight Field with a thrilling 18-16 victory on Friday afternoon.

Anastos stopped 11 shots during the second half after the SVU trimmed an eight-goal deficit second-quarter deficit to 11-8 after 30 minutes.

Makay Hansen tied his season high of four goals, the biggest of which occurred with 11:28 remaining in the fourth quarter, a little more than a minute after the Knights trimmed CC's lead to 15-14 on Zach Danneman's eighth goal of the contest.

Just 26 seconds later after Hansen's marker, Declan Maguire struck for what proved to be the game-winning goal. It was the third time in the game that Colorado College scored back-to-back goals in less than 30 seconds.

Southern Virginia trimmed its lead to 17-15 on Tennison Schmidt's second marker, but Jack Haims got that one back with his career-high fourth goal with 9:30 to play.

After Ty Veres notched his third goal to cut SVU's deficit to two, the Tiger defense rose to the occasion and kept the Knights off the scoreboard for the final 7:17. During the final 78 seconds, CC killed off a pair of 30-second penalties and did not allow a shot on goal.

"We knew we had to start fast and finish strong, and that's exactly what we did," head coach Sean Woods said. "I'm proud of our guys for trusting the game plan and playing 60 minutes of Tiger lacrosse.

"Don't let Southern Virginia's record fool you, that's a really good team that plays in one of the best conferences in Division III."

Dylan Wells and Luca Lietti scored 36 seconds apart during the first minute of the game, then Jacob Smith and Hansen struck in a span of 29 seconds to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead just 12:16 into the game.

Colorado College added tallies by Maguire and Haims to take a 6-0 lead in the second quarter, and after Eric Norr put SVU on the board 58 seconds into the frame, the Tigers added markers from Hansen, Anders Erickson and Smith to stretch their lead to 9-1.

Danneman scored five goals during a 7-2 surge that got the Knights back to within 11-8 at halftime, but CC was able to stay in front even though its lead fluctuated from as many as four goals to as few as one.

In addition to his 23 faceoff wins, eight of which led directly to Tiger goals on the ensuing possession, Chodnicki picked up a career-high 15 ground balls.

"Winston was huge for us," Woods said. "Without his performance at the dot, who knows how many more shots Danneman gets, or how many more saves Ben would have had."

As a team, the Tigers win 26 of 38 faceoffs.

Colorado College finished with a 50-49 edge in total shots and a 39-34 advantage in ground balls.
   
      
Colorado College Standouts
Anders Erickson produced a goal and four assists for the Tigers.
Winston Chodnicki picked up 15 ground balls.
Declan Maguire and Dylan Wells each recorded two goals and an assist.

Southern Virginia Standouts
Seth Millington recorded five ground balls and four caused turnovers for the Knights.
Dalon Hampshire made nine saves for SVU.
 
Notes
Colorado College improved to 9-2.
Southern Virginia slipped to 3-7.
 
Next for the Tigers
Colorado College faces it's second top-five opponent of the season when the Tigers visit No. 5 Christopher Newport University on Sunday.