Trailing 4-1 after one quarter, the Belmont Abbey men's lacrosse team outscored Lenoir-Rhyne 12-6 in the final three quarters, including 4-1 in the second, as the Crusaders opened the 2013 season with a 13-10 win over the visiting Bears this afternoon at Alumni Field. It was the season opener for both teams.

Lenoir-Rhyne built a 4-1 first quarter lead as it outshot the Abbey 13-3. The Bears scored the first three goals of the game before the Abbey's Daniel Marshall scored the first of his six goals to momentarily halt the Bears momentum, but Ned Kaish scored the final goal of the period with 2:57 left to push the Bears lead to 4-1.

The second quarter was an exact opposite of the first, as the Abbey exploded for four goals as it outshot the Bears 17-6. Marshall and Scotty Steele both scored twice for the Crusaders, with Dan Morrissey assisting on the final three goals, as the two teams headed into halftime tied at five.

The third period featured a steady stream of goals, as the two teams combined to score eight times. Five of those came for the Crusaders, all consecutively, after Lenoir-Rhyne scored the first three of the half to build an 8-5 lead. Tanner Scharr closed the lead to 8-6 off of a feed from Connor Doyle. Four minutes later, Connor Sellars scored his first career goal to pull the Abbey to within one at 8-7. 43 ticks later, Morrissey tied the game on his first goal of the year. The Abbey then scored twice with under a minute left, as Sellars fired home his second goal of the year with 55 seconds left, an Marshall punctuated the scoring off of an assist from Sellars with his fourth strike with 10 seconds left.

Belmont Abbey outscored the Bears 3-2 in the final period as the Abbey's lead never dropped below two goals. Leading 11-9, Marshall fired home the last two goals to extend the lead to 13-9, and Kaish closed the scoring with 1:46 to play.

The Crusaders outshot the Bears51-29, including 19-3 in the third quarter. The Abbey also won 16 of 27 faceoffs and finished 12 of 13 on clear attempts.

Doyle caused four turnovers, while Scharr caused a pair. Doyle and Kevin Costa both led all players with six ground balls apiece.