HIGH POINT, N.C.—The offense for the Bellarmine Knights lacrosse team struggled in the early going and High Point jumped out to a 7-1 lead then held on for a 15-7 victory in the Southern Conference opener for both squads today at Vert Stadium.
The game opened very much a defensive struggle as the teams went scoreless for the first 14:33 before HPU's Asher Nolting opened the game's scoring with 27 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The Knights finally got on the board at the 8:30 mark of the second quarter when Will Roshkowski converted a feed from Luke Legnard to trim the Panther lead to 2-1.
High Point (1-6, 1-0 SoCon) responded with a 5-0 run over the next 5:54 of game time to run out to the 7-1 advantage.
Brian Wall notched his 15th goal of the season to make it 7-2, but the Panthers scored with just 17 seconds remaining to go into halftime leading 8-2.
The second half was more even, but the Knights could get no closer than five goals in the second half.
High Point's Nolting was the game's offensive leader, netting seven points with three goals and four assists. The Panthers' Connor Robinson was the goal leader with four in the game.
Bellarmine (2-5, 0-1 SoCon) got two goals and two assists from Legnard as the freshman upped his season scoring total to 12 points (8G, 4A). Wall added two assists to his one goal while Morgan Macko, Will Roshkowski, Landon Trout and Brayden Brown each notched one goal for the Knights.
In goal, Bellarmine's John Hulsman collected 17 saves, but was saddled with the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season. High Point's Tim Troutner, Jr., tallied 11 saves for the Panthers and picked up the win.
Team statistics showed the Panthers with significant advantages in shots (42-28) and ground balls (37-24). After winning just three of 12 first half face-offs, the Knights rallied a bit in the third and fourth quarters winning eight of 14 to finish the game 11-of-26 at the X.
Bellarmine stays on the road in its next action, which comes next Saturday at noon with the Knights take on Jacksonville in another SoCon matchup.
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