Alex Tindall and Jake Duarte scored their first goals of the season and the Mount Olive defense turned in perhaps its best effort of the season, but Saint Leo scored five goals in the final 8:41 to pull away for an 11-6 non-conference men's lacrosse win at Saint Leo, Fla. Friday afternoon.
After trailing most of the contest, Mount Olive freshmen Spencer Gelinas and Blake Bennett opened the fourth period with unassisted goals to knot the game 6-6 with 9:55 left to play.
After struggling to find the net for much of the contest against Lion goalie Dave Moore, Mount Olive (2-3) now put together four of the final five goals heading into the final stretch.
At the worst possible time, however, the Trojan attack fell silent again. To make matters worse, Saint Leo (4-2) came alive, scoring the final five goals after amassing just six in the first 49 minutes against goalkeeper Rocky Bowman, who finished with 10 saves.
From the outset, the defenses dominated play. Mount Olive struck first when Daniel Shields took a pass from Jordan Herman to put home his team-leading 14th goal of the season. Just before the end of the period, Tindall brought the Trojans even 2-2.
Despite stellar defense from Mount Olive, the Trojans could not stay even. It took the Trojans 26:22 to find the net again. Tindall fed Duarte on a man-up opportunity with 4:22 left in the third to bring the Trojans back within 5-3. Teammate Cameron Walsh followed moments later with his sixth goal of the season to close out the third period.
Robert Hutchinson momentarily broke the Trojans' momentum, before Gelinas and Bennett evened the match one final time.
Chris Caiazza and George Proechel each scored twice and Dan Staker once to close out the game for the Lions.
Helping Saint Leo's cause was a 15-6 advantage in face-offs won and 32-24 in ground balls.
Mount Olive continues its Florida trip Saturday night when the Trojans travel to Florida Tech for a 7 p.m. start.