BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lafayette men's lacrosse team fell behind early on Sunday and could not recover, falling to No. 16 Lehigh, 15-7, at Frank Banko Field.
 
Lehigh (5-3, 3-0 PL) jumped out to a 4-0 lead through the opening 15 minutes before freshman Cole Dutton opened the scoring in the second quarter for his first of two on the afternoon for Lafayette (4-5, 0-3 PL).
 
Freshman Ryan Kirkwood helped sandwich a Lehigh goal to make it 5-2 with five minutes left in the half before three-straight from the Mountain Hawks. The run was stopped when sophomore Andrew Robbins found the back of the cage with just 27 seconds to play in the half, but Lehigh countered with one more before the buzzer to head into halftime up, 9-3.
 
The Leopards came out strong in the second half, holding Lehigh scoreless for the opening 10 minutes and netting a pair of goals by Dutton on the man-up and Robins to cut it to 9-5.
 
Lehigh bounced right back and scored four unanswered to close the quarter and regain control of the game.
 
Freshman Ryan Ness made 12 stops on the afternoon, giving him 12 or more saves in four of his last five games. Sophomore Bryan Hess also netted a pair and senior Connar Denhert tallied two assists.
 
The Maroon and White forced Lehigh into 16 turnovers in the game and was the cleaner team, committing only five penalties to Lehigh's eight.
 
Lafayette returns to action on March 23, traveling to Boston U. for more Patriot League action with game time scheduled for noon.