A pair of long passes for touchdowns in the first half of play for SUNY Morrisville helped to build a lead that the St. Lawrence University Football team could not overcome Morrisville held on for a 28-20 victory Friday night at Drake Field in Morrisville in front of a record-setting crowd of 2,152 in the season opener for both teams.

St. Lawrence (0-1) rallied in the second half and was driving for the potential game-tying score before time ran out on the final drive at the 30-yard line.

Morrisville (1-0) took an early lead with a 63-yard scoring pass down the sideline and scored again later in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead and the Mustang defense held St. Lawrence to negative eight yards of total offense in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter the Saints defense made a big play forcing a turnover on a fumble and senior quarterback Mike Lefflbine guided the offense into the end zone to start the second quarter as he connected on a 15-yard scoring pass over the middle to Austen Lauricella.

On the ensuing drive, Morrisville used the second long pass completion of the half with a 59-yard pass and catch for another score to make it a 22-7 Mustang lead.

The St. Lawrence defense stepped up again on the next Morrisville drive as the Mustangs drove to the 8 yard line but could not score with three straight incomplete passes to end the threat.

Lefflbine and the Saints offense took over and put together an impressive 12-play drive that was capped by an 11-yard TD pass to Mitch Gallagher to make it a 22-14 game.

After a kickoff and one play the lights in the stadium went dark resulting in a 36-minute delay with just 44.7 seconds left in the first half. When the lights finally did come back on, the Mustangs ran two quick plays to end the half.

There was a shortened halftime intermission and the opening kickoff of the second half hit the leg of one of the St. Lawrence front line defenders and was recovered by the Morrisville kicker to give possession back to the Mustangs.

Morrisville drove inside the 10-yard line before the Saints defense pulled out another big play stopping the drive at the nine-yard line.

After a pair of punts, St. Lawrence took over near midfield and Lefflbine put together another drive that included a pair of big pass plays to Leondre Simmon. The first was a third down play as Lefflbine connected for 21 yards and a first down and later, the same combination connected for a 24-yard gain on a fourth-and-13 situation and three plays later, St. Lawrence scored to trim the lead to 22-20 at the start of the fourth quarter.

 Morrisville scored on the very next drive capped by a 34-yard pass completion for a TD for teh 28-20 advantage.

St. Lawrence stopped one more Morrisville drive in the red zone forcing an incomplete pass on fourth down from the 19 yard line giving the Saints the ball back with 3:16 on the clock. Lefflbine and the offense moved the ball all the way to the 30 yard line but an incomplete pass on fourth down with time running out ended the drive and the game for the Saints.

Lefflbine finished 20-for-32 for 226 yards and two TDs but was sacked six times. Simmon led the receivers with 69 yards on four catches. Alec Dietsch had a team-leading 11 tackles while Skyler Williamson and Brendan Donahoe each had nine tackles.