MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. - The Bellarmine Knights dropped a 17-8 decision on the road against the Robert Morris Colonials. The contest marked the Knights' second in a span of three days.
Robert Morris got the scoring started with two straight from Ryan Smith and Elliot Holden before James Whiteford found Kyle Playsted for the Knights' first of the day less than a minute later. However, that would be Bellarmine's lone goal in the first as the Colonials closed out the quarter with a three-goal run to take a 5-1 heading into the second.
Midway through the second quarter, the Knights' offense found a bit of a spark. Landon Trout ended their nearly 12-minute scoring drought and less than a minute later Luke Legnard found the back of the net on a man-up play. That would be the last bit of offense or serious momentum the Knights would enjoy the rest of the half. Robert Morris scored twice late in the quarter to get ahead 7-3 heading into halftime.
The Knights were held scoreless for nearly 14 minutes until a transition goal from Griffin Bowie at the 4:11 mark in the third ended the drought. J.T. Simonton followed up with one of his own just minutes later. Bowie scored once more in the fourth, along with Legnard and Trout.
"Early in the game we actually generated some quality shots and either hit the goalie or missed the goal," Bellarmine Head Coach Andy Whitley said.  "Those things tend to snowball on themselves, and it definitely compounded today. Not having Brayden Brown available today definitely hurt because in addition to being a very good finisher he's also a steadying force on the field."
But while Bellarmine was able to get some offense going in the second half, the Colonials outscored the Knights 9-3 in the final two quarters to help them pull away and secure the win.
Bellarmine ended the game with the upper hand in only two statistical categories. The Knights outshot the Colonials 43-39 and went 2-for-5 on the man-up while Robert Morris went 1-6 on the man-up. Robert Morris more than doubled up Bellarmine in the ground ball game (41-29) and went 16-for-28 (57%) as a team at the faceoff dot. Robert Morris also went 20-for-21 in the cleaning game while Bellarmine went 15-for-18.
"Probably the biggest disappointment today was our inconsistency on ground balls all over the field," Whitley said. "We are usually a good first time ground ball team and today we allowed too many second chances on the defensive end as well as not securing some very realistic chances on the offensive end."
Playsted had four points (1G/3A) for the Knights while Trout, Bowie, and Legnard each scored two goals in the contest. In cage, JC Higginbotham played the majority of the game and made 12 saves with a .429% save percentage.
Robert Morris was led by Ryan Smith with 11 points (5G/6A) while Austin Popovich tallied five points (3G/2A) and Jake Boudreau netted a hat trick. Liam Rosenthall made 14 saves with a .667% save percentage for the Colonials.
Bellarmine will be back in action on Saturday when they take on Notre Dame on the road at 5 p.m.
