LEXINGTON, Va. — The Bellarmine University lacrosse team was staring down a must-win situation, and the Knights reacted by not leaving a shadow of a doubt about the outcome in Saturday's match at Virginia Military Institute.

Behind balanced scoring and a shrewd effort on defense, Bellarmine remained in the thick of the battle for a Southern Conference Tournament berth with a 15-6 romp over the Keydets at Drill Field 2.

Eleven different players scored goals for the Knights (5-8, 3-3 SoCon), who can seal a bid in the conference tourney with a win over Furman next weekend at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium. In addition, seven different BU players collected assists as the Knights built an emphatic 12-1 lead over VMI (2-13, 0-6).

"We were really fired up," BU Coach Kevin Burns said. "We knew what this game meant. The playoffs have essentially started for us."

And the Knights competed with a playoff-like sense of urgency. Less than one minute into the game, freshman Stephen Votto scored for Bellarmine off a feed from sophomore Will Roshkowski. BU's offense continued going full throttle after that, scoring four more goals over the next nine minutes to lead 5-0 after freshman Ian Miller spotted sophomore Andrew Schoeneck for the first of his three goals.

The 15 goals was easily a season high for Bellarmine, surpassing the 11 the Knights scored twice. Assists were recorded on four of the team's first five goals, execution by the team of an emphasis from Burns.

"We wanted to get back to having ball movement and that concept offensively that we had early in the year," he said.

On defense, the six goals Bellarmine allowed tied a season low. To even get to six, VMI had to score twice in the final 17 seconds. Sophomore goalkeeper Chase Rose amassed 12 saves, and the Knights didn't yield a goal in the middle two periods.

"Chase Rose played terrific in goal. He robbed a couple good looks from VMI," Burns said. "Again, like on offense, we had contributions from a lot of different people. It was a good team effort."

After asserting itself in the first quarter, Bellarmine appeared as if it might get shut out in the second period. However, the Knights stunned the Keydets with two goals inside the final seven seconds before halftime. Returning from an injury, senior Bobby Schmitt followed senior Ben Charpentier's goal with one of his own with one second remaining off a pass from sophomore Brian Wall as BU led 7-1.

"That was a huge shot in the arm, especially that last one when Bobby scored," Burns said.

Indeed, Bellarmine returned from the break with momentum firmly on its side and poured it on VMI with four unanswered goals in the third period and one more in the fourth as the Knights built an insurmountable 12-1 lead. For good measure, they scored three straight goals after the Keydets scored twice for a 15-3 advantage.

Schoeneck's hat trick and Roshkowski's three assists paced Bellarmine, which had a 43-38 superiority in shots. Votto and Schmitt scored two goals apiece. Charpentier, Roshkowski, seniors Dylan Gatt and Daniel Zamora, juniors Graham Macko and Jack Perkins, and sophomores Nick King and Eric Liddy put away one goal each. Besides Roshkowski, six other players had an assist for Bellarmine.

Sophomore Connor Harryman won 9-of-15 faceoffs and registered a game-best five ground balls. Junior Tyler Nangle won 5-of-8 faceoffs. Gatt and senior Shane Healey both tallied four ground balls. Healey also caused two turnovers.

Bellarmine will host Furman at 1 p.m. (ET) next Saturday. It will be the Knights' Senior Day, along with a chance to earn a spot in the SoCon Tournament after the blowout of VMI.

"We wanted to give ourselves the opportunity," Burns said, "and we did that."

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