Deadlocked 5-5 at the half, the Belmont Abbey men's lacrosse team outscored Catawba 5-2 in the final 30 minutes as the Crusaders earned their second-straight win with a 10-7 triumph over the visiting Indians this afternoon at Alumni Field. The win evens the Abbey's record to 4-4, while Catawba drops to 4-5.

Catawba controlled the first quarter, outscoring the Abbey 4-2, but the Crusaders erased that in the second half as they found the back of the net three times, and held Catawba to just one goal.

Max Vinograd pushed the Indians lead to 5-2 with a goal at the 13:15 mark, but the Crusaders charged back, as Tanner Scharr began an Abbey burst of three unanswered goals at the 13:04 mark. Seven minutes later, Miles Elliott narrowed the gap to one, and when it appeared that Catawba would take a one goal advantage into halftime, Brian Watson assisted Nick Boylan with three seconds remaining to knot the game at five.

Braden Artem pushed Catawba back ahead at the 11:48 mark of the first quarter, but much like the second quarter, Belmont Abbey charged back with four unanswered goals, as Dave DiLuigi knotted the game at six, followed by Joey Peruzzi score at 8:48 to give the Abbey the lead for good. Peruzzi's goal came after he intercepted a Catawba clearing attempt and raced down the field and registered an unassisted tally. Scharr closed the third quarter scoring with a goal at the 6:59 mark to stretch the Crusader advantage to a pair.

Dan Morrisey began the fourth quarter scoring at 10:56 to move the lead to three at 9-6. DiLuigi followed with a two-man down goal at the 3:10 mark. Catawba's Marty Tuhoy ended the scoring with 1:15 left off an Artem assist.

DiLuigi and Tuhoy led all players with three goals each, while Scharr had a pair. Morrissey, Boylan, Elliott, Peruzzi and Charlie Kemp all had one each. Scharr, Watson, Ryan Corrigan and Damon DeLuca all had one assist.

Along with Tuhoy, Artem, Vinograd, Tom Cullop and Freddie Turcio all had one goal each. Artem posted two assists. Tuhoy, Dave Banik and C.J. Dunshie all had one.

Defender Tristan Keas led all players with four caused turnovers to go along with a pair of ground balls.

Goalkeeper Tony Kikola made four saves before giving way to Merrick Reiland at halftime, Reiland finished with six saves.

The Abbey outshot Catawba 31-27 and won the ground ball (31-30) and face-off advantages (13-8).