LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Bellarmine Knights secured their second win of the season on Tuesday afternoon as they took down the VMI Keydets 12-8 at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.

Tuesday's contest saw the Knights have their best performance of the season at the faceoff dot with J.T. Simonton and Matt Ury combining to go 15-for-23 (65%) at the dot. Eric Rubak's play on the wing also aided the Knights in getting offensive opportunities off the faceoff. Rubak ended the game with a school-record 12 ground balls and four caused turnovers.

"J.T. Simonton has been working his tail off, and I give Matt Ury a lot of credit for his work in that support role" said Bellarmine Coach Andy Whitley.  "I am super happy with our competitiveness on the faceoff," he said  adding, a lot of the faceoff success is due to "Eric Rubak having a heck of an afternoon."

Benny O'Rouk had the best game of his career, tallying four goals and dishing out one assist to lead the Knights' offense. Additionally, Landon Trout had a hat trick and Griffin Bowie tallied three points (1G/2A).

"He (O'Rouk) has a chance to be an exceptional player," Whitley said. "I put him at attack because he is one of our better offensive players, and I want him to be on the field every play.  And to his credit, he made some exceptional plays today. That is why we put him out there."

JC Higginbotham made 13 saves to anchor the Bellarmine defense while John Robbins caused three turnovers and scooped up two ground balls.

Ryan Perouty and Michael Santos each had a hat trick for the Keydets while Anthony Merida made 15 saves in cage to anchor the VMI defense.

O'Rourk scored two straight to put Bellarmine up 2-0 early and get them rolling right out of the gate. Perouty got VMI on the board late in the first and Scout Ripley followed up with one early in the second to tie things up.

The Knights continued to score in bunches as they got two straight from Luke Legnard and Landon Trout to put them back up 5-3 with 9:19 in the second. VMI outscored Bellarmine 2-1 in the final 7:20 of the half to make it a one-goal game heading into the third.

Up 5-4 coming out of the half, Rubak took an outlet pass from Higginbotham coast to coast for the score. That goal gave the Knights a huge spark, as they were able to go on a three-goal run just minutes later and hold the VMI offense for the majority of the quarter to stretch their lead to 9-5.

From the 4:54 mark in the third through the 10:18 mark in the fourth, the Keydets went on a three-goal run of their own, which included two from Perouty, and cut the Bellarmine lead to 9-8. However, the Knights had an answer and closed the game out with three straight to score the win.

"This was against a conference opponent and had that conference playoff feel to it, so it's a huge credit to our guys to be able to dig deep and be able to outscore them 3-0 down the stretch, Whitley said.  

Bellarmine (2-5) will be back in action at home on Saturday at noon when they take on Cleveland State. The Knights and Keydets will meet each other once more this season on April 10th in a SoCon contest.