Box Score HIGH POINT, N.C.—The Bellarmine University lacrosse team led or was tied for 59 minutes and 20 seconds of their game against High Point, but unfortunately for the Knights, the Panthers owned the lead when it really mattered—at the sound of the final horn when the scoreboard read High Point 10, Bellarmine 9. 

Last season, the game between these squads was just the opposite.  Bellarmine trailed the entire game before tying it late and winning by the same 10-9 score in overtime after Stephen Soriano won the face-off and raced downfield to score the winner just six seconds into the extra period.

This year, it was Michael Leclair's goal with 40 seconds remaining in regulation that provided the difference for High Point in the Southern Conference game at Vert Stadium.

Going into the game, High Point's Jamie Piluso ranked No. 1 in the conference for face-off winning percentage, and he certainly lived up to the billing by winning 17 of 21 battles at the "X."  The Bellarmine defense responded, however.  Led by Colin Hart's three caused turnovers , Bellarmine  forced the Panthers to cough it up 15 times, and the Knights actually enjoyed a 35-34 shot advantage.

Fueled by the big face-off advantage, High Point picked eight more ground balls than the Knights (30-22) while the goalies had comparable numbers.  Drew Goethals collected 13 saves while HPU's Zach Tuell netted 15.

Bellarmine opened the scoring less than two and a half minutes into the game as Brogan Hill converted his seventh goal of the season.  The Knights made it 2-0 on a Ryan Scinta goal at the 7:12 mark, but HPU answered just 17 seconds later on the first of Leclair's three goals.

Dylan Gatt scored his 14^th goal of the season to make the margin two again in favor of Bellarmine.  The Panthers, who never let the Knights put a run together, cut the lead in half as Dan Lomas scored the first of his six goals on the day.

Bellarmine struck one more time in the opening period as Andrew Schoeneck took a feed from Scinta and drilled it in the back of the net to give the Knights a 4-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The second period belonged to the host Panthers as they reversed the score from the opening period, outscoring the Knights 4-2 to knot the score at 6-6 heading into halftime.

Taylor Stuart notched his first goal of the season to give the lead back to Bellarmine at the 12:30 mark of the third period.  After the teams traded goals, Scinta put the Knights ahead by two, 9-7 with 5:54 remaining in the period. 

From that point on, however, the Panthers shut out the Knights. Meanwhile, HPU came back with one more in the third period and tied it with 10:35 left in the game before Leclair netted the game winner with less than a minute to go. The goalies each came up big in the final quarter with Goethals stopping six shots, while Tuell denied the Knights five times.

Offensively, the Knights were led by Austin Shanks, who scored once and handed out four assists.  The sophomore from Whitby, Ontario extended his consecutive games with a goal streak to 24—the third longest streak in the nation.  Scinta added a pair of goals and an assist while Gatt scored twice for the Knights.

High Point was led by Lomas with six goals, and Leclair added a hat trick as that duo scored nine of the Panthers' 10 goals.

Bellarmine falls to 4-8 on the season with a 2-4 SoCon record.  The Panthers improved to 8-6 (4-2 SoCon) and sewed up the No. 3 seed in the four-team Southern Conference postseason tournament. Furman claimed the No. 4 seed  after defeating Jacksonville 11-7 tonight. Bellarmine finished the season in fifth place in the conference standings.

BOX SCORE (HTM)