Lacrosse Wins Third Straight, Defeats Bellarmine 10-9

Saturday, March 9

Salt Lake City, UT

1:00 PM

University of Utah

4-3

Bellarmine

0-6

Bellarmine

Utah

Photo by: Ben Haslam

Lacrosse Wins Third Straight, Defeats Bellarmine 10-9

3/9/2019 7:36 PM | Lacrosse

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah lacrosse team won its third-straight game on Saturday afternoon with a hard-fought 10-9 victory over the Knights.

The Utes (4-3) led by as many as four goals early in the game, 6-2, before Bellarmine tied the game up at 6-6 with 7:55 left in the third quarter. The teams traded goals most of the way down the stretch with the exception of back-to-back goals by the Utes as the third quarter ended and the fourth began that proved to be the difference in the game.

Josh Stout scored three goals for his sixth hat trick of the season and also had an assist for four points. James Sexton had two goals and two assists for four points while Aaron Fjeldsted also had two goals. Samuel Cambere scored a goal and had an assist while Nick Hapney and Jake Cantlon also added goals. Jimmy Perkins, Cam Redmond, Gabe Mein and Griffin Bonjean also had assists.

"A three-goal margin seems to be a magic number in lacrosse," head coach Brian Holman said. "I was praying we could get that third goal late in the game but we just couldn't get there. My message to the guys was to continue to stay true to who we are. Forget the scoreboard. We preached that since August and I think we're doing a really good job of that, just trying to make the next play. We happened to make bad two plays at the end – we turned the ball over and got a man-down penalty, but we ended up making the play at the end that counts. We could have folded right there. We held in there and made the play that matters, which is the next one.

"Just happy and proud. We're learning how to work better in practice and learning how to become a better team and learning to love each other more. That just makes me proud. We'll have a good night tonight and fly to Durham tomorrow."

The teams traded goals early. Fjeldstead got the scoring off for the Utes and that goal was answered less than a minute later by Bellarmine. Stout's first goal of the game was also quickly answered before the Utes went on a four-goal barrage to end the first quarter that included two goals from Sexton and goals from Stout and Fjeldstead. Bellarmine came back to score the only two goals of the second quarter and the first two goals of the third to tie the game at 6-6.

Aaron Fjeldstead helps close out the first quarter with this goal to put Utah up 6-2 over Bellarmine! #goutes pic.twitter.com/gyAYRwJ6L3
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) March 9, 2019

The Utes came back quickly after Bellarmine tied it as Hapney scored his first career goal after taking it coast-to-coast. The Knights re-tied the game with 3:38 left in the second period before Cantlon scored his first goal of the day with 28 seconds remaining in the second period.

Jake Cantlon puts Utah back on top with this goal late in the third period, 8-7! #goutes pic.twitter.com/AmwGV62ESH
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) March 9, 2019

Less than a minute later as the fourth period began, Cambere scored his second goal of the year with an assist from Redmond to give the Utes a two-goal lead, 9-7, although Bellarmine answered quickly to cut the advantage back to one with 13:48 remaining.

The teams struggled to find the net for the next several minutes before Stout used a long possession with 9:13 left to put the Utes back up by two. The Knights scored their final goal of the game with 4:21 left.

And this play right here is going to give Utah the 10-9 win over Bellarmine! #goutes pic.twitter.com/H4iaZ6mS4k
— UtahLacrosse (@UtahLacrosse) March 9, 2019

"We talked earlier in the week, I knew that Bellarmine wasn't going to come in here and just lay down," Holman said. "We got on them early and I thought maybe that would help, but I credit their staff, their players, they gave it all they had and our guys did too."

Utah has an ambitious week ahead over Utah's spring break as it travels east to face fifth-ranked Duke (Tuesday, March 12), Fairfield (Friday, March 15) and UMass (Sunday, March 17).