Ethan Friedberg completed a hat trick of man-up goals to lead the No. 19 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team, as the Saints fell to No. 18 Middlebury 14-8 in a top-20 matchup on Tuesday afternoon in Middlebury, Vt.

Friedberg tallied three goals, all on the man-up, while Patrick Murray notched two goals. Daniel Mahoney recorded a goal and an assist, while Drew Knight and Asa Beach also scored for SLU. Knight recorded five caused turnovers and six ground balls, while Dan Anderson finished with a team-high seven ground balls.

Middlebury's Charlie O'Connor put the Panthers on the board first, but Knight added his fifth goal of the season with the long pole to tie the game up at one apiece. The Panthers scored back-to-back goals to close the first, including one with 1.2 seconds to play, to lead 3-1 after the first 15 minutes of play.

The Panthers outscored the Saints 5-2 in the second and Middlebury held an 8-3 lead at halftime.

Friedberg scored his second man-up goal of the game to kick off the second half, bringing the game back with four goals. Middlebury then went on a five-goal run to build a 13-4 lead over the Saints. Mahoney closed out the third quarter with his 33rd goal of the season.

Friedberg added his third goal of the game on the man-up to complete the hat trick to start the fourth and Murray tallied back-to-back goals, but an early lead from the Panthers helped them close out the top-20 battle with the win.

"I thought we got off to a solid start but unfortunately hit a couple of pipes early that could have allowed us to settle in a bit had they gone in," said head coach Mike Mahoney. "We had a stretch in the third quarter where we got out of our structure and like good teams do, they made us pay."

Logan White led Middlebury with seven goals and two assists for nine points.

Heath Mann recorded nine saves for the Scarlet and Brown, while Hayden Kern made 12 for the Panthers.

Middlebury finished with a 23-20 edge in shots on goal. St. Lawrence went 3-for-4 on the man-up, while the Panthers went 1-for-2.

St. Lawrence moved to 8-4 on the season, while Middlebury improved to 6-5.

"We look forward to focusing our energy on league play the rest of the way and another opportunity at home on Saturday," Mahoney added.

The Saints return to the North Country and host sixth-ranked RIT on Saturday, April 11 at 12 p.m.