An early goal in the fourth quarter from Ben Hutchinson brought the No. 6 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team back within one, but the No. 5 Middlebury Panthers held on to edge the Saints 11-10 on Wednesday afternoon at North Country Field.

Ben Hutchinson, Mark Mahoney and Cam Croasdaile all tallied two goals for the Scarlet and Brown, while Cody Sipher, Judge Murphy, Bobby Wells and Zadoc White each scored once. Murphy recorded two assists, while each of the Hutchinson brothers added one.  Paddy Condon went 15-for-24 in the faceoff circle and picked up a team-best 11 ground balls, while four Saints finished with two ground balls each and seven Saints each caused a turnover.

A top-10 close fought battle right from the start on a sunny afternoon in Canton, the Saints struck first as Ben Hutchinson scored his 35th goal of the season, but the Panthers responded quickly with two of their own.

The teams traded goals and the Panthers held a 4-3 lead after the first 15 minutes of play.

Tom Conley scored for the Panthers to start the second, making it 5-3, but back-to-back goals from Mahoney tied it up 5-5 and Croasdaile's eighth of the season put the Scarlet and Brown up 6-5. The Panthers tallied two more to reclaim an 8-6 lead at halftime.

A third-quarter surge saw three goals from the Saints to retie the game 9-9 with 1:41 to play in the third frame. Middlebury's William Ryan scored the final goal of the third with one second-remaining off a long-range pass from Luke Simpson and scored the first of the fourth to give the Panthers an 11-9 lead with 13:32 to play.

Ben Hutchinson scored his second of the game off a pass from Murphy to bring the game back within one with 10:15 remaining, but the Panthers would hold onto their one-goal lead for the win.

"I loved the fight in this team today," said head coach Mike Mahoney. "Credit to Middlebury for making some critical plays at key times. It is a perfect time to play this game, learn from it, and be in a better place as we head down the home stretch of league play."



Ryan led Middlebury with six goals, an assist, five ground balls and one caused turnover. William Munroe went 7-for-16 in the faceoff circle and picked up six ground balls.

Saints' goaltender Michael Marinello made 17 saves between the pipes, while Hayden Kern made 13 saves for Middlebury.

The Panthers outshot St. Lawrence 45-37 including 28-23 in shots on goal. Middlebury also finished with a 38-28 edge in ground balls, while the Saints controlled the faceoff circle 15-9 but neither team was able to capitalize on the man-up advantages.

With the loss, the Saints moved to 10-2 overall, while Middlebury improved to 10-1.

The Saints will travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. this weekend to take on Vassar on Saturday, April 15 at 1 p.m.