The Belmont Abbey men's lacrosse team scored the first five goals of the game and held off a late Tampa charge to earn a 7-5 win this afternoon in a contest that was played in Savannah, Georgia on the campus of Savannah College of Art & Design. The win ups the Abbey's record to 2-1, while Tampa, a first-year program, falls to 3-1.

After a scoreless first period, the Abbey bolted out to a 4-0 lead at the half on the strength of four goals on 11 shots. Dan Morrissey opened the scoring at the 13:41 mark with an unassisted tally, and 1:41 later, Josiah Nash made it 2-0. Another Abbey goal, this one by Joey McGinley 48 ticks later, upped the lead to 3-0. A little under seven minutes later, Scotty Steele scored the final goal of the half to extend the Crusader cushion to 4-0.

Morrissey scored the only goal of the third quarter, coming at the 7:10 mark, to make the score 5-0. Tampa opened the fourth quarter with a pair of goals, and Nash stopped the momentum with a goal at the 11:06 mark to widen the advantage to 6-2.

The Spartans scored the next two goals in a three minute span to pull within two at 6-4, but Corrigan provided breathing room with a goal off of a feed from Steele at the 3:06 mark. Tampa added a final goal with 2:24 to play, but could not score again as Merrick Reiland stopped three of the Spartans final five shots to preserve the win.

Tampa outshot the Crusaders 32-26 and won 11 face-offs to just five for the Abbey. Reiland made 13 stops in the cage, including six in the fourth quarter. Connor Doyle caused two turnovers, while Jon Wolcott had the other.