LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kyle Playsted tallied a season-high seven points as Bellarmine took down Lindenwood 17-10 Saturday afternoon at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium. In the process, Playsted became Bellarmine's first 100-goal scorer.
 
"I'm extremely happy for Kyle as he crossed the 100 goal mark," said Bellarmine head coach Andrew Whitley. "That's a tremendous accomplishment in any program but to be the first guy to do it in our program is a truly special achievement. He's got a couple guys on his heels, but I couldn't be happier for Kyle."
 
Bellarmine (7-4, 3-1 ASUN) was able to pull away from Lindenwood (0-7, 0-4 ASUN) with a 7-1 run spanning the last six minutes of the second period and nearly six minutes into the third. That run included a pair of goals by Playsted, the first of which he slammed home with 12:43 remaining in the third to become the first Knight to reach triple digits in career goals.
 
"Today was a good effort by our guys," said Whitley. "Anytime you can get a conference win, you take it. We were able to just to focus on the process this week and tried to make ball security a priority this week."
 
The 17 goals matched a season high in ASUN play from the Knights' 17-9 win at Mercer, though Whitley hoped for a little more.
 
"There were times today we played really good offense and times it was a little more frenetic than we would like," he said.
 
Playsted also added three assists to give him seven points, a new season high for the senior captain. He is now just three points away from establishing Bellarmine's 200 point club.
 
JC Higginbotham earned his 26^th career win in the net for Bellarmine, saving 10-of-17 Lions shots (.588).
 
Justin Wescoat, John Alie, Christian Della Rocco and Michael Blaymires each scored two goals while a different quartet of Harrison Pate, Brandon Boyle, Wilson Murphree and Luke Healy each tallied two assists. Alie increased his ASUN-leading goal total to 31.
 
Aidan Fearn (13-of-19), Cole Messick (5-of-7) and Grant Guthrie (1-of-4) combined to go 19-of-30 on faceoffs as Bellarmine was able to control possession for much of the afternoon.

"I give Aidan a lot of credit today," Whitley said. "He came off the bench and gave us a real spark at the X. Grant, Aidan and Cole all bring a different skill set to the faceoff and I am confident we will need all three before the season is over if we're going to make a run at the league championship."

Bellarmine has now won 33-of-51 faceoffs (.647) over their last two games.
 
Still, turnovers prevented Bellarmine from controlling the game even more. The Knights committed 19 turnovers to the Lions' 15.
 
"We just have to keep focusing on correcting the physical as we move forward deeper and deeper into conference play," said Whitley. The team that turns the ball over the least in the late season games often comes out on top."
 
On defense, the Knights' were led by Christopher Reynolds, who caused three turnovers and scooped up three groundballs.
 
Benny O'Rourk, riding a 33-game goal scoring streak, did not see action for the second consecutive game.
 
Lindenwood was led by a pair of players scoring hat tricks, Flint Thielen and Evan Mason. Mason was Kentucky's Mr. Lacrosse in 2022 while playing at nearby South Oldham.
 
Next up for Bellarmine, the Knights travel to Air Force on Saturday, April 6 looking for their first road win against the Falcons since 2010. Opening faceoff will be at 1 p.m. ET.
 
"We'll celebrate this one for 24 hours and then it's on to Air Force for a monster game against the Falcons with some major conference seeding implications," concluded Whitley.
 
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