Box Score
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Saturday the Bellarmine University Knights lacrosse team captured their first Eastern College Athletic Conference win of the season besting the Michigan Wolverines 12-6 in Louisville at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.

The Knights started slowly and the Wolverines capitalized taking a 3-0 lead five minutes into the game. After a timeout for the Knights, Bellarmine settled in and scored six unanswered goals to pull ahead 6-3 with three minutes to play in the first half.

When asked about the slow start, Bellarmine Coach Kevin Burns said, “Keeping our intensity up and coming out ready to play was the last thing we talked about before the game, but we will need to improve on that as the season progresses.”

Michigan scored one more goal before the half to cut the Bellarmine lead to 6-4 at intermission.

The Wolverines struck first in the second half to close the gap at 6-5; however, that was the closest they would come to the Knights for the rest of the game.

Bellarmine exploded offensively at the beginning of the fourth quarter scoring four goals in the span of just over one minute. Bellarmine's offensive eruption was capped off by an unassisted goal from sophomore long-stick midfielder Bobby Schmitt.

Michigan was able to put one more shot past Knights goalie Dillion Ward before Karsen Leung finished the scoring making the final tally 12-6.

Despite missing seniors Michael Ward and Luke Acton the Knights had no problem scoring the ball. Sophomore attackman Dylan Gatt filled in for Ward and played well finishing with two goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Leung also chipped in a goal and an assist, while attackman Lance Robinson scored one goal and dished out two assists.

Offensively the day belonged to two Knights, Schmitt and junior Cameron Gardner. Schmitt was able to score two goals and notch two assists with his long pole, while also scooping up five groundballs and causing one turnover. Schmitt's four point day gives him five on the season, matching his entire total from last year.

The leading scorer for the Knights was Gardner who scored five goals and had one assist on a career high six point day. Gardner was very efficient against the Wolverines scoring his five goals on just 11 shots.  

The Knights played well defensively in front of Ward who had the second highest single game save total of his career stopping 18 shots on the day. Head coach Kevin Burns was especially pleased with the way his young defenders played together as a unit, holding the Wolverine's man-up offense scoreless on six opportunities.

Bellarmine's short-stick defensive midfielders Reid Wesley and Trevor Timmerberg also helped keep the Wolverines offense in check, described by Burns as the “workhorses” of the day.

A big factor in Bellarmine's win was their ability to control play at the faceoff “x”. After only winning two of seven faceoffs in the first quarter senior David Herring was able to dig in and win 10 of the final 14 draws, including 6 of 7 in the fourth quarter.

Burns was complimentary of the fourth quarter effort from his team. After losing the ground ball battle in the first half the Knights were able to turn up their intensity and pick up eight more ground balls than Michigan in the second half.

Pleased with the victory and his team's ability to handle adversity Burns said “This was a good first step en route to our season goal of playing in the ECAC tournament.”

The Knights will take the field again on Saturday February 23 against the High Point University Panthers. Faceoff will be at 1 p.m. at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium in Louisville.