ORLANDO, FLA.—The SUNY Potsdam men’s lacrosse team rallied for eight fourth quarter goals, but came up one short as they dropped their season opener to Mt. St. Joseph, 16-5. Junior midfielder Pat Morrill led the Bears with five points (3g-2a), while senior attackman Pete Pike (3g-1a) and sophomore attackman Rob Kunz (4a) each contributed four.

Potsdam trailed 3-2 after one quarter, 8-5 after two and 13-7 after three. The Bears three fourth quarter goals from junior attackman Kyle Nicholas and two each from senior captain Ryan Paparella and Morrill, but couldn’t draw even with the Lions. Mt. St. Joseph stayed in front of Potsdam thanks in part to Ryan Gallagher who scored all of three of the Lions goals in the final 15 minutes. Gallagher finished with five goals and an assist for six points, while teammate Chris Uselmann totaled three goals and four assists for a game-high seven points.

Mt. St. Joseph goalie Cody Nolan held off the late Potsdam charge, finishing with 17 saves. Bears junior goalie Stefan Sloma made allowed 11 goals and made three saves in the first 40 minutes. Senior goalie Mike Quinlan made three saves and allowed five goals in the final 20 minutes.

“Considering it was our first game, I felt pretty good about the effort,” said Bears Head Coach Rick Berkman. “I thought we played great offensively, and defensively we were basically playing with our second string because of all our injuries at D-middie. Our new guys aren’t quite ready and we lost the ground ball battles today. We still have work to do.”

Potsdam (0-1) will return home to face Hartwick on Saturday, March 17, at 1 p.m.

Scoring Totals:

Mt. St. Joseph: g-a

Chris Uselmann 3-4

Ryan Gallagher 5-1

Pat McClanahan 2-2

Cory Wojochiechowski 2-2

Mike Murphy 2-0

Anderson Morgan 2-0

Zack Thomas 0-1

Potsdam:

Pat Morrill 3-2

Pete Pike 3-1

Rob Kunz 0-4

Derek Frost 3-0

Ryan Paparella 2-1

Jared Flath 1-2

Kyle Nicholas 1-0

Brady Fremont 1-0

Matt Donovan 1-0