WESTMINSTER, Md. – The Southern New Hampshire University men's lacrosse team was defeated by a score of 9-6 to Mount Olive Thursday afternoon in non-conference play. The Penmen drop to 0-2 overall, while the Trojans improve to 4-1.

Despite an early SNHU lead in the first quarter, Mt. Olive outscored the Penmen in the second and third to earn the win.

Crosby Nicholson (Andover, Mass.) led the team with three goals, which all came in the fourth quarter, while Zach Jacobs (Tewksbury, Mass.), Cameron Joyce (Braintree, Mass.), and Jeremy Buckley (Norwell, Mass.) each added one goal apiece.

Joyce put the Penmen on the board first, scoring his first goal of the season from Rob Murray (Marblehead, Mass.) just 1:49 into the first quarter, and Buckley upped the score to 2-0 with a score from Eric Johnson (West Suffield, Conn) two minutes later. The Trojans cut the lead to one with 10 minutes left in the frame on a Cameron Walsh goal, and the Penmen took a 2-1 lead into the second.

Mt. Olive quickly tied the game in the second quarter, 2:14 in, and then took the lead on another Walsh goal. The Trojans scored once more in the quarter on a man-up opportunity, and led SNHU 4-2 going into halftime.

The scoring did not let up after the break as Mt. Olive scored three more consecutive goals in the third quarter to take its biggest lead of the game at 7-2. However, SNHU answered when Jacobs scored unassisted cut the deficit back to four goals to end the period.

The Penmen outscored the Trojans in the final quarter 3-2, but ran out of time before they could comeback. After Mt. Olive took another five-goal lead at the 12:54 mark (8-3),  SNHU and Nicholson answered with three straight goals, including a man-up score to cut the Trojans' lead to two goals with 3:00 left to play. However, SNHU could not come up with two more scores, and Mt. Olive scored once more to secure the win with a minute left to play.

Morgan Weireter (Oak Park, Calif.) had 14 saves in net for the Penmen, while Ross Bowman saved 18 shots in 59:44 of work.

The Penmen are idle until Saturday, March 15 when they travel to Assumption to open up Northeast-10 Conference play for a 3:00 p.m. game.

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