Michael Marinello stopped a career-high 24 shots, but the fourth-ranked St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 13-7, to the No. 18 Middlebury Panthers on Tuesday afternoon in Middlebury, Vt.

Judge Murphy led the Saints with two goals and an assist, while Ben Hutchinson also scored a pair of goals. Bobby Wells finished with one of each, while Zack Corsi and John Mahoney also scored for SLU. Paddy Condon went 14-for-24 from the faceoff circle and picked up a team-best 11 ground balls, while Wells and Marinello picked up three ground balls each and nine Saints each caused one turnover.

After six minutes and 54 seconds, Corsi put the Saints on the board 1-0 with his sixth goal of the season. Saints' goaltender Michael Marinello was hot to start making eight saves in the first 10 minutes of play including a one-on-one opportunity for the Panthers. Middlebury scored four straight through the remainder of the first quarter, including two from Russell Thorndike to take a 4-1 lead after one.

The teams traded goals in the second quarter, with Wells, Murphy and Mahoney scoring for the Saints. But after the early lead in the first, the Panthers held an 8-4 advantage at halftime.
Middlebury's defense locked down in the third quarter and the Panthers shutout the Saints 4-0, increasing their lead to 12-4.

The Saints started out the fourth quarter with two straight goals from Ben Hutchinson and a third from Judge Murphy to bring the game to 12-7. Tom Conley capped the scoring at 2:03 sealing the win for Middlebury.

"I thought Middlebury played well right out of the gates and forced us into too many mistakes that were costly," said head coach Mike Mahoney. "Obviously I didn't have us ready to go, but I look forward to a great response by the team on the weekend."

Thorndike finished with four goals, two assists, two ground balls and three caused turnovers, while Conley scored three for Middlebury.

Marinello stopped a career-high 24 shots for the Scarlet and Brown, while Hayden Kern finished with nine for the Panthers.

Middlebury outshot St. Lawrence 53-37 and picked up 29 ground balls to SLU's 26.

St. Lawrence moved to 11-1 on the season, while Middlebury improved to 8-5.

The Saints will return to Liberty League play and travel to Ithaca this Saturday for a 4 p.m. game against the Bombers.