Box Score The Lindenwood men's lacrosse team outplayed the number one team in NCAA Division II for the middle two quarters, but a fast start and a strong finish led No. 1 Mercyhurst past Lindenwood by a 14-9 score on Saturday afternoon at Hunter Stadium.

Mercyhurst jumped out to a 6-2 lead after one quarter and led by as many as five at 7-2. The Lions got back into the game with a 4-0 run, including three straight goals in a 2:08 time span. Lindenwood had a chance to tie with a extra-man opportunity, but the Lakers scored a man-down goal to go up 8-6, and added another goal with five seconds remaining to lead 9-6 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Lindenwood was once again able to get within one goal when back-to-back tallies midway through the period made the score 10-9. The Lakers did not allow another goal for the final 20 minutes though, and scored four times to finish with a five-goal victory.

Mercyhurst outshot Lindenwood 39-24 but had just two more shots on goal. The Lakers also had three more save, two more groundballs, and four less turnovers. Lindenwood won four more faceoffs in the game and scored the game's only extra-man goal.

Lindenwood got two goals apiece from Brandon Stuebing and Joe Roy, and Carter McCracken had one goal and one assist. Other goals came from Greg Cameron, Mike Meagher, Andrew Szczepan, and Brandon Lenz. Graeme Hossack, Matt Schenk, and Ben Beath each had one assist.

Hossack had a team-high 11 groundballs and caused three turnovers. Meagher finished with seven groundballs and two caused turnovers. Michael Helfant was 13-of-21 on faceoffs and won four groundballs.

Lindenwood falls to 4-2 on the season and 0-1 in the ECAC. The Lions will be off until April 4 when they travel to Walsh.