MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – The Hawks had their six-game winning streak snapped as the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team fell at Robert Morris, 13-8, in Northeast Conference action at Joe Walton Stadium on Saturday afternoon. With the loss, the Hawks stand at 9-3 overall and 4-1 in league play while Robert Morris improves to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in the NEC.
Sophomore attackman Kyle Cain led the Hawks with three goals and one assist.
Robert Morris' Eddie Smith scored the game's only two goals of the first quarter and added his third straight goal to put the Colonials up, 3-0, by the 12:29 mark of the second quarter.
Sophomore attackman Chris Blewitt then assisted on SJU's first goal of the game from senior midfielder Rich Gabelman (10:08) and then scored his own goal (9:25) to close the deficit to one, 3-2.
The Colonials answered with back-to-back goals (8:06, 7:20) to jump back out to a three-goal lead, 5-2, before Saint Joseph's junior defenseman Charles Giunta put away an unassisted goal (2:43) to close out the second-quarter scoring.
Cain scored his first goal of the game just 52 seconds into the third quarter to once again pull the Hawks to within one goal, 5-4, but Robert Morris answered with a pair of scores (9:16, 8:03) to once ahead pull back ahead by three, 7-4, midway through the third quarter.
Saint Joseph's then strung together three straight goals from junior midfielder Kevin Reidinger, junior midfielder Marcus Milione, and Cain to tie the score, 7-7, with 3:36 to play in the third.
However, the Colonials responded with four consecutive goals - two on EMOs - to take an 11-7 advantage heading into the final 7:50 of regulation.
Cain netted his third goal of the day on a feed from sophomore attackman Jason Kelly on a man-up possession to pull the Hawks to within three goals, 11-8, with four minutes to play, but the Colonials scored the final two goals of the game as the 13-8 score would stand as final.
For the game, Robert Morris held a 35-27 edge in shots while the Hawks won the ground ball battle, 27-25, and earned 14 of the game's 25 face-off possessions.
Junior Mike Lanham went 14-of-23 from the X to go with 11 ground balls.
Junior goalkeeper T.J. Jones (9-3, 4-1 NEC) made nine saves in the full 60:00.
Saint Joseph's heads to city-rival Penn for non-conference action this Tuesday, April 26. Opening face-off at Rhodes Field is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
GAME NOTES: Saturday's loss marks the first regular-season NEC loss in program history for the Hawks, who now stand at 16-1 all-time in NEC regular-season games since joining the league for Spring 2014.
