A stellar defensive effort which caused 16 turnovers and limited Union College to only four goals and an opportunistic offense which outscored the Dutchmen 4-1 in the second half lifted St. Lawrence University's men's lacrosse team to a 7-4 win over the third-ranked Dutchmen in a Liberty League lacrosse game played on Lou Saban Field at Canton College Saturday afternoon.

The Saints, now 5-4 overall and 2-0 in Liberty League play won their third straight while Union, 6-2, 1-1, lost for the second time in a row in a game played under clear, but cold conditions.

SLU scored a pair of last second goals in the game, the first with four seconds to go in the first half on a shot by Jamie Denicola off Conor Healey's feed to tie the game at 3-3 and the second on a shot by Andrew Jarrett that caught the net as time ran out in the third period to give the Saints a 6-3 lead after three. SLU made it a 7-3 game with 9:57 to go in regulation on Healey's 20th of the season and while Tom Stanton brought Union to within 7-4 with 6:01 to play, the Saints combined strong defense with a possession game to run out the rest of the clock without further scoring.

"When we hit a rough patch a week or so ago, we looked at this game as a test to see how we would respond," said Saint coach Mike Mahoney. "I am pleased with both our effort and our execution against a very good Union team. This is a huge conference win for us, and hopefully we can keep building from here."

The Saints matched their best defensive performance in terms of goals allowed as Andrew Butturini made six saves on ten shots on goal and came up with some big forced turnovers in the defensive end. Macky Lynch caused four turnovers and had four ground balls and Jack Roberts caused five turnovers and had three ground balls to pace the Saint defense.

Healey led the attack with two goals and an assist while Tommy Hovey, Jeremy Vautour and Austin Nadeau joined Denicola and Jarrett in the goal-scoring column. Charlie Ross scored twice for Union while Stanton and Paul Alberti had the other goals. Union goalie Stefan Basile had an outstanding game for the Dutchmen, making 15 saves, seven of them coming in the first period.

Alberti opened the scoring for Union with 7:24 to go in the first period, but the Saints tied it on Hovey's 26th of the year from Vautour with 3:16 left. Healey put SLU up 2-1 with 12:28 to go in the second quarter, but Ross scored a pair to put Union ahead 3-2 with 1:42 to go before Denicola's goal with four second left knotted it at the half.

Nadeau gave the Saints the lead 4:45 into the second half and Vautour scored in traffic with 1:02 left before Jarrett's buzzer-beater to end the period, giving the Saints their 6-3 lead.

SLU outshot Union 39-22 with 22 shots on net to 10 for the Dutchmen. The Saints were 19 of 22 on clears while Union was 16 of 19 and SLU had a 20-18 edge in ground balls. Union had 26 turnovers and the Saints 18 and the Dutchmen were scoreless in four man-up chances while the Saints did not score in two extra man opportunities.

SLU is scheduled to host Plattsburgh Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. while Union plays at St. John Fisher on Wednesday at 4.