LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine lacrosse team dropped a hard-fought 12-11 decision to the visiting Utah Utes in ASUN Conference lacrosse action in a sun-drenched Frazier Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
 
The league-leading Utes never trailed in the game, but Utah couldn't shake the Knights either, with the game featuring five ties.  In the final quarter, Utah stretched its lead to three at 12-9, and Bellarmine's comeback effort ran out of time as the Knights' final goal came with just seven ticks remaining on the clock.
 
Nine of the game's 23 goals came in the first quarter.  The Utes opened the scoring with a pair of goals in the game's first four minutes, but the Knights responded with goals by Brayden Brown and Lukas Sinon to knot the score at two apiece at the 7:18 mark.  From there, the teams traded goals until the Utes finally got the momentum with three straight goals to stretch their lead to 8-5 early in the third quarter.
 
The Knights fought back, however, and pulled even with a 3-goal run of their own.  After the teams traded goals, Utah again went on 3-0 run to take a 12-9 lead with just 3:13 remaining. Bellarmine tried to rally, but fell short with the Utes hanging on for the one-goal victory.
 
Utah's Tyler Bradbury led all scorers with six points on a pair of goals and four assists while Jordan Hyde added three goals for the Utes.  Brown led the Bellarmine offense with two goals and two assists as nine different players found their way to the scoring column for the Knights.
 
Kyle Playsted made some Bellarmine history with his goal with seven seconds remaining.  It gave him two points in the game and 53 for the season, breaking the school record of 52 set by Garett Kikot in the Knights' first season as a full DI member (2006).
 
Another milestone was attained by Bellarmine goalie JC Higginbotham, whose 15 saves gave him 321 in his career to move past JC Hutchins into second place on BU's all-time list. Meanwhile, Jon Robbins tallied four more caused turnovers as he reached 110 for his career, which is tied for 12^th on the NCAA's all-time list.
 
Today's game was the last home contest for the Knights and marked the last game at Frazier Stadium for 12 Bellarmine players, who were honored before the game.  Those players are Brayden Brown, Cameron Herbert, Patrick Keegan, Kevin Lambe, Luke Legnard, Brody Lowry, Collin Murray, Ethan Pattinson, Jon Robbins, Blake Roshkowski, J.T. Simonton, and Dylan Tulett.
 
With today's win, Utah stays unbeaten in ASUN play at 4-0 and moves to 8-3 overall.  The win also gives the Utes the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. 
 
Bellarmine, which fell to 4-11 overall, is now tied for third in the league standings at 2-2.  

The Knights' final game of the regular season will be next Saturday, when they travel to Colorado to face Air Force Academy at noon Mountain Time (2 p.m. EDT). The Falcons also are  2-2 in league play and sport an overall record of 7-6
 
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