Box Score | Liberty League Standings

TROY, N.Y. – St. Lawrence University used a 9-2 run to turn a 5-2 deficit into an 11-7 lead and the No. 19 Saints defeated No. 17 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in a Liberty League men's lacrosse contest at East Campus Stadium. The game was the regular season finale for both teams.

Rensselaer is now 12-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference. The Engineers, who had a four-game winning streak snapped, are the second seed in the league tournament and host a semifinal game on May 2. St. Lawrence improves to 11-4 and 5-3 and plays in the quarterfinals on Saturday against an opponent and at a location to be determined.

The Engineers opened the game with the first four goals with senior Matthew Gilman tallying twice and classmate Cliff Kigar registering a goal and an assist in the sequence. St. Lawrence bounced back with two of its own, including a Jordan Dow goal with just nine seconds left in the frame, to make it a 4-2 game.

Zach Lukas, who had an assist on the first goal of the game, put Rensselaer ahead 5-2, but the Saints began their run, scoring four of the final five goals of the quarter to tie the game at 6-6 after 30 minutes. Dow had two goals, both unassisted, and Harrison Koch scored with 17 seconds remaining.

It was not only the score that was tied as both teams had 18 ground balls. RPI held a 21-19 edge in shots and the Engineers won 10 of 14 faceoffs, all by senior Oliver Kaija.

Conor Caffrey and Mike Donnelly scored for the visitors out of the break for an 8-6 lead at the 12:37 mark, but Rensselaer's JT Kelly got a goal back when he finished a Lukas feed with 5:29 to play in the third. Jack Hennessy and Donnelly finished the third quarter scoring before Hennessy scored again at 13:14 of the fourth for an 11-7 edge.

RPI mounted a late comeback with two goals from Kelly, one with 1:53 to play and another at 1:31, to get to within two, 11-9. The Engineers then had a point-blank shot for their 10th goal, but SLU's Matty Corbelle stopped Lukas on the doorstop with under a minute to play. St. Lawrence ran out the clock from that point.

Corbelle finished with 11 saves, including three in each of the final three quarters, to improve to 2-0. Donnelly and Dow both had three goals, while Caffrey scored twice with an assist. Defenseman Evan Doodian had six ground balls for the Saints, who finished with a 32-30 edge in pickups and a 37-33 advantage in shots.

Kelly scored three times in the loss and Lukas finished with a goal and three assists. Kaija won 15 of 23 faceoffs with eight groundballs and Parker Smith (10-3) stopped 13 shots in goal.