COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Lacrosse outlasted St. John Fisher in a low-scoring 7-5 battle on Saturday afternoon in non-conference play at Patterson Field.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 4-3 overall and have won its first three home games this season. Meanwhile, the Cardinals who are the four-time defending Empire 8 champions, fell to 3-4 overall.
 
 
It did not seem as it would be a low score affair at first as the Cardinals opened the game with back-to-back goals in the first four minutes to gain a 2-0 lead. Sophomore Chris Bryant put the Bears on the board at the 7:33-mark with a sharp rip to the top left of the net and made it 2-1. The score remained the same until the 13:26-mark of the second quarter when St. John Fisher converted off a Bear turnover deep in their own end to make it 3-1. Sophomore Barrett Denlinger cut the deficit to 3-2 at the 6:41-mark and with strong defensive and goaltending, the Bears hung around into the half.
 
 
Sophomore Lars Homan knotted the game at three on the Bears opening possession of the third quarter before junior Ryan Dever gave Ursinus its first lead of the game at the 12:51-mark from a fast clear. Sophomore Harry Sweitzer kept the run going with a tally at the 10:32-mark to make it 5-3 and the Bears shut out the Cardinals in the third quarter. However, the Cardinals gained life at the 11:15-mark when they scored from midfield during the Bears being on a 10-man ride with an empty net. St. John Fisher won the ensuing faceoff and scored 30 seconds later to tie the game at five. Senior Drake Kasoff gave the Bears the lead back at the 9:33-mark with a diving goal in front of the crease and it turned out to be the eventual game-winner. Ursinus continued to lock down the Cardinals on offense and got an insurance goal in the waning seconds from Sweitzer with the net wide open.
 
 
The Cardinals held a slight 34-32 shot advantage and a 21-17 edge in shots on goal. Ursinus held a 39-27 ground ball advantage behind winning 11 of the 16 faceoffs in the contest which included the last three down the stretch. Bears senior goalkeeper Jonathan Singer was outstanding in net as he earned a hard-fought win behind 16 saves in the full 60 minutes. Ben Hammond made 10 saves in the full 60 minutes while suffering the loss for St. John Fisher. Sweitzer led six different Bear goal scorers with two tallies while sophomore Nils Updale won 11-of-16 faceoffs while grabbing a career-high 11 ground balls.
 
 
The Bears return to action on Saturday, March 23rd as they will open Centennial Conference play at home against No. 13 Gettysburg at 12:00 p.m.