PHILADELPHIA – Hobart's Frank Brown scored the game-winning goal 16 seconds into overtime as the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse squad dropped a Northeast Conference heartbreaker, 8-7, on Sweeney Field on Saturday afternoon. With the loss, the Hawks fall to 3-8 overall (0-3 NEC) while the Statesmen improve to 5-6 overall (2-1 NEC).

Senior goalkeeper T.J. Jones made a career-high 20 saves in the full-game effort, including many highlight-reel caliber stops. Junior attackman Chris Blewitt led all scorers with five points on a game-high four goals and one assist. Junior midfielder Kyle Cain (2g, 1a) and senior attackman Ray Vandegrift (1g, 1a) added to SJU's offense.

"This is a tough one to take today," said head coach Taylor Wray following the game. "When I look at the season, so far, we've had a lot of close calls. Overall today, I thought we did a pretty good job of executing the game plan. We played incredibly hard and lost a close game. Overall, I was pleased with what we tried to execute in terms of the game plan."

Tied 5-5 after three quarters, Hobart's Chris Aslanian scored just 51 seconds into the fourth to give the Statesmen their first lead of the game.

Cain scored on a feed from Vandegrift at the 8:53 mark to even up the scoring, but Hobart responded less than two minutes later to own a 7-6 edge entering the final 6:57.

Called for unnecessary roughness, Hobart went man-down with 5:04 to play, and Blewitt found Cain to capitalize on the EMO with the equalizer, 7-7, at the 4:20 mark.

Blewitt saw a good look with 2:42 to play, but Hobart goalkeeper Jackson Brown came up with the save. On the other end, Jones made his 20th save of the day on a Statesmen attempt with 39 ticks remaining in regulation to force the game into overtime.

Hobart won possession off the face-off to start the overtime frame. 11 seconds out of the timeout, Brown tucked away the game-winner on a feed from Bryan Hancock.

For the game, Hobart owned a 42-32 edge in shots, includiing a 14-3 third quarter. The Hawks earned a 38-24 advantage in ground balls and won 12 of the game's 18 total opportunities from the X.

Senior face-off specialist Danny Manning took all of SJU's face-offs and earned a game-high eight ground balls in the process, while senior defenseman Shane Taggert scooped up a career-high five ground balls.

SJU held Hobart to just 1-for-2 in EMOs, but the Hawks struggled on the offensive end, going 2-for-6 on man-up plays.

Paced by Blewitt's four early scores, the Hawks scored five of the first six of the game to jump out to a 5-1 advantage by the 11:31 mark of the second quarter.

Hobart then fired off four in a row to close the second and dominate the third en route to an even playing field entering the final 15:00.

Jones (3-8, 0-3 NEC) was up to 11 saves by the end of the first half, having only allowed five goals at that point, and made another nine saves while allowing just two scores in the final 30:00 of regulation. The senior added a career-high five ground balls on the afternoon.

"T.J. was terrific," added Wray. "He is definitely the backbone of our defense."

Saint Joseph's returns to action next Saturday, Apri 15 at Sacred Heart (6-4, 2-2 NEC). Opening face-off at Campus Field in Fairfield, Conn. is slated for noon.