The St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team battled nationally-ranked No. 12 Union College to the brink on Saturday, but Rob Santangelo's late goal in the final minutes gave the Dutchmen a 7-6 victory in Schenectady, NY.

The loss snaps St. Lawrence's perfect start to the 2012 season, moving the Scarlet and Brown to 6-1 (1-1). Meanwhile, Union improves to 6-1 after holding a 31-19 advantage in shots.

"I give a lot of credit to Union for jumping out on us early and forcing us to play catch-up," said St. Lawrence head coach Mike Mahoney. "We got some terrific goaltending early which allowed us to stay in the game before we hit our stride."

The first quarter belonged to the home team, as Union held a 13-2 advantage in shots while the Saints committed eight turnovers. However, junior Jeff Goeke made seven of his 10 first-half saves in the quarter to keep the Scarlet and Brown within striking distance, trailing only 2-0 on goals by Brad Woodruff and Ted McKenna.

After the two teams exchanged goals to start the second quarter, Mac Johnson got the Saints within one at 3-2, capping the first half scoring with 4:12 remaining.

Union's Ethan Meyer and St. Lawrence's Pierson Fowler would exchange goals in the third quarter, setting up a dramatic fourth stanza with the home team on top 4-3. After Greg Mooney made it 5-3 in Union's favor, Tucker Garfield and Fowler scored goals only 1:46 apart to knot the game at 5-5 with 9:09 to play.

Meyer would again put Union ahead 6-5 at 4:40, but co-captain Kyle Jacobsen's 12th of the season came only :32 seconds later for the Scarlet and Brown to tie the game, 6-6.

Santangelo would deliver the unassisted deciding goal with 3:19 remaining, as his 11th of the year put Union on top for good. Though the Saints would have a man-up try in the final minute of regulation, they could not score on Dutchmen netminder Sean Aaron.

"Offensively, it was a battle in every sense of the word and Union had the final blow," added Coach Mahoney. "I thought we competed hard and we will take a lot of positives away from this one."

St. Lawrence was unable to overcome a 26-15 disadvantage in turnovers, while each team closed with 36 ground balls. Union held a slight advantage in face-offs (8-of-15) and scored the only man-up goal of the game (U 1-of-3, SLU 0-for-4).

Goeke finished with a game-high 10 saves in the first half, while classmate Jack Nuland played the second half and made four stops. Aaron finished with six saves for the Dutchmen.

St. Lawrence will look to bounce back when it faces Plattsburgh State on Wednesday, April 4 at 7:00pm in Plattsburgh, NY.