The No. 13 Lindenwood men's lacrosse team fell in its top-15 showdown on Saturday afternoon against No. 14 Limestone. The Lions dropped a 16-11 decision to the defending national champions.
Lindenwood played a nearly perfect game for the first 14:30, and it jumped out to a 6-1 lead. The Lions forced five turnovers in the period, three of them on clearing attempts, and turned four of those turnovers into goals.
Limestone was able to steal the momentum, though, right before the end of the first quarter. It won a faceoff and scored with just nine seconds remaining, which cut Lindenwood's lead to 6-2.
The next two quarters were all Limestone's as it outscored the Lions 11-3 during that time period. Limestone scored on seven of its eight shots in the second quarter, which helped it lead 9-8 at halftime. The Saints then scored four of the five goals in the third quarter to build a 13-9 lead, and they also scored the first three goals of the final quarter to lead by as much as seven.
Shots were almost even in the game, and the Saints had a 25-20 lead on shots on goal. Limestone won 26-of-30 faceoffs in the game, and also had a 43-25 advantage in groundballs.
Leonard Jones led Lindenwood with five goals on the afternoon.
Sam Heaton scored twice and had one assist, and
Sean Darroch had two goals. Heaton,
Max Hood, and
Joe Shelly each had team-highs of three groundballs in the game.
Lindenwood falls to 3-1 on the season. The Lions start a key two-game road trip to Florida next Wednesday with a game at Saint Leo.