The St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team put together a rally in the third quarter against Western New England College, but came up short against the Golden Bears by the final score of 12-9 in Orlando, FL.

The loss is the third straight for St. Lawrence (0-3) to start the 2011 season, though all three losses have come to national powers.  WNEC, which received votes in this week's national rankings, improves to 3-2 on the year.  Junior Kyle Jacobsen led the Saints with three goals while classmate Caldwell Rohrbach added two more.

The Saints finished the game with a 44-40 lead in shots and a 36-29 edge in ground balls.  However, 19 turnovers and an 0-for-6 mark on man-up tries proved costly for the Scarlet and Brown.  The Golden Bears also received a clutch performance in the fourth quarter by goalie Brewster Knowlton, who made nine of his 16 saves in the final 15:00 minutes.  Sophomore Jack Nuland turned in a career-high 14 save performance in net for St. Lawrence.

St. Lawrence controlled the tempo early in the game, as Jacobsen opened the scoring only three seconds into regulation.  After Mike Santare answered for the Golden Bears to tie it at 1-1, sophomores Tucker Garfield and Dave Hovey and Rohrbach scored consecutive goals to open up a 4-1 lead for St. Lawrence with 6:17 remaining in the quarter.

Santare and Patrick White would lead the ensuing charge for WNEC, as the team rattled off seven of the next eight goals in the first half to take an 8-5 lead at intermission.  Santare scored two more goals and White scored four in the first half to give the Golden Bears a three-goal cushion at the break.

After White opened the second half scoring at 3:56 for a 9-5 WNEC lead, the Saints put together a three-goal run to pull to within a goal at 9-8.  Rohrbach scored his second of the game, followed by junior Drake Paul and Jacobsen with 7:01 left in the third quarter.  However, Santare and White would respond with back-to-back goals only 9 seconds apart to push the Golden Bears' lead back to three at 11-8 heading into the fourth quarter.

The final frame belonged to Knowlton, who made nine crucial saves to keep the Saints offense from pulling the team back to within striking distance.  Corey Johnson scored for WNEC to make it 12-8, while Jacobsen capped the game's scoring with a tally for St. Lawrence.  Steve Cargill, Pierson Fowler, Mick MacLaverty, Garfield and Paul each had an assist for the saints as well.

The Scarlet and Brown will look to pick up their first win of the season on Tuesday, March 22 when the team hosts Colby College at Hall-Leet Stadium.  The game is scheduled to begin at 3:30pm on North Country Field.