LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine lacrosse team dropped a 9-7 decision to Air Force on Saturday afternoon in a Southern Conference game at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.
 
The visiting Falcons broke open a close game with four goals in the third quarter then held off a late comeback attempt from the Knights to secure the victory.
 
Air Force played a deliberate style of offense—evidenced by five stall warnings, but still managed to outshoot the Knights 31-23, putting 21 of those shots on frame.
 
Matthew Schwartz had a big game for the Falcons, netting five goals on just seven shots with the four remaining scores spread around to four different players.
 
Brian Wall and Morgan Macko paced the Bellarmine attack with two goals apiece while Will Roshkowski, James Whiteford and Landon Trout added one apiece. Ian Miller dished out three assists on the day.
 
Bellarmine broke out on top early in the game, taking advantage of an Air Force slashing penalty to register a man-up goal just 31 seconds into the contest. However, the Falcons answered quickly, and after more than 12 minutes of scoreless action, Roshkowski struck for the Knights with just 13 seconds remaining in the opening period.
 
In the second quarter, Air Force netted two early goals to take its first lead of the game at the 10:35 mark.  Bellarmine answered two minutes later on Macko's first goal of the game, and the teams played the final 8:24 without a score to go into halftime with the score knotted at three.
 
Schwartz scored twice in the opening 5:40 of the third quarter to give Air Force a two-goal lead.  After the Knights trimmed the margin to one on Wall's first goal of the game, the Falcons registered two scores in the final minute of the third quarter to take a 7-4 into the final period.
 
Bellarmine again sliced the margin to just one with 9:32 remaining in the game, but Air Force again pushed the lead to three and held off the Knights for the 9-7 victory.
 
The Falcons improve to 4-7 on the season and up their SoCon record to 2-1.  The Knights slip to 2-7, 0-3 SoCon.

Although saddled with loss, freshman goalie John Hulsman had another solid outing for the Knights coming up with 12 saves on the day while stopping 57.1 percent of the Falcons' shots. His counterpart, Braden Host picked up with victory, recording six saves on the day.  Both goalies played all 60 minutes between the pipes.
 
Bellarmine returns to action on April 7 when they go on the road take on the Spiders of Richmond.
 
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