Trailing 9-5 going to the fourth quarter, the Belmont Abbey men's lacrosse team outscored Limestone 4-1 in the final 15 minutes, but could never get the equalizer as the top-seeded Saints won the Conference Carolinas Championship with a 10-9 win this afternoon at the Queens Sports Complex. Limestone moves to 11-1, while the Abbey ends its season with a mark of 7-6.

Limestone scored the first goal of the fourth quarter at the 12:43 mark, but a furious Abbey rally of four unanswered goals cut the Saints lead to one.

Brian Watson made it 10-6 at the 8:21 mark, followed by a Ryan Corrigan tally just over four minutes later off of a feed from Dave DiLuigi. Less than one minute later, Dan Morrissey found the back of the net to trim the deficit to 10-8. That was all of the scoring until there were 47 seconds left, when Morrissey fed DiLuigi to pull the Crusaders to within one.

After an Abbey timeout, Limestone won the faceoff but turned it over, where senior defender Tristan Keas scooped up the ground ball. After a successful clear into the Saints end, DiLugi cut loose a blast with nine seconds left that Limestone goalkeeper Steve Gartleman stopped. On the ensuing clear attempt, Gartleman turned it over with four seconds left, where Mike Pease collected the loose ball, but time expired before the Abbey could get off a shot.

Belmont Abbey outshot the Saints 37-29 as DiLuigi, Morrisson and Watson led the Abbey with two goals apiece. Corrigan, Tanner Scharr and Nick Boylan scored single goals each. Morrissey handed out a pair of assists, while DiLuigi, Scharr, Matt Spivey and Joey Peruzzi all had one each. Keas led the Crusaders with nine ground balls as the Abbey won that battle 30-26. He also caused three turnovers. Goalkeeper Tony Kikola made nine saves.

Riley Loewen led the Saints with three goals, while Jake Rogalia had a pair. Five other Saints had single goals apiece. Gartleman made 15 saves.