Written by: Sidney Wiles (snw003@marietta.edu)
On February 15th, the Marietta College men’s lacrosse team opened their season with a dominating 23-0 win against Thiel College. This win marked the program’s largest shutout win in history, with the last shutout being a 21-0 win over Heidelberg. Last season the Pioneers defeated the Tomcats 28-4 to set the program’s record for largest margin of victory.
Freshman, Donavan Masters, gained the crowds’ attention with his outstanding performance as the lead scorer with four goals, and three assists, which earned him OAC’s Player of the Week. Alongside Donavan, there were eleven other players that scored during the game, proving that this was in fact a team win.
Freshman, defensive Midfield, Xzandre Flohr shared, “We prepared to play Thiel by watching film as a team and developing strategies that would allow us to come out as the successor and practice our game plan.”
Flohr, went on to share, “The win showed us that we can be the dominant team and that we have a lot to look forward to this season. We plan to prove a lot of people wrong.”
The Pioneers lost their first road game of the season 9-3 versus Westminster College (PA). This past weekend, February 21st, the Pioneers proved themselves as contenders with another 11-10 win against Wittenburg. With a great 2-1 start to the season, there is a promising future for Marietta’s men’s lacrosse team this season, and seasons to come. As the team finds themselves under new leadership this season with head coach Nathan Grover.
Grover comes to Marietta after spending the past two seasons as the assistant coach of Malone University. Grover was a four-year letterman for the Pioneers as a face-off specialist. He was named to the All-OAC team three times, including a first-team selection his junior year. He led the OAC with 203 face-offs won, breaking his single season record set the year prior. Grover graduated from Marietta with a bachelor’s degree in Sport Management in May of 2023 and completed his MBA from Malone in 2025.
Make sure to go out and support your fellow Pioneers on February 25th at 6:00 p.m. when taking on Chatham here at Don Drumm Stadium.
For more information on game statistics and the game schedule, head to the website below!
pioneers.marietta.edu/sports/mens-lacrosse
Edited by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
