CANTON, NY -- The No. 2 RIT men's lacrosse team held on for a hard-fought 16-12 win at No. 8 St. Lawrence (8-1, 1-1 Liberty League) Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Tigers improve to 10-0 overall and are 3-0 in Liberty League play. RIT has now won 50 straight regular season games dating back to the 2013 season.

RIT held a 14-8 lead early in the fourth quarter, before St. Lawrence cut the lead to three goals. The Tigers defense held strong in the final quarter, including killing off a two-man disadvantage late in the contest.

Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport) led RIT with six points on four goals and two assists. Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy) finished with five points on four goals and an assist, and Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) and Jay Vakiener (Fairport, NY/Fairport) each scored a pair of goals. Drew Tosaya (Kenmore, WA/Inglemoor) added a goal and an assist, while Braden Wallace (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park) dished out a pair of assists.

RIT held a 42-33 shot advantage, while St. Lawrence held a slight 32-30 ground ball edge. The Tigers won 21-of-32 face-offs, and cleared the ball 13-of-14 times. RIT went 1-for-2 with the man advantage, but allowed the Saints to go 3-of-6 on man-up chances.

Steven Ricci (Rochester, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) won 18-of-27 face-offs and grabbed seven ground balls for the Tigers. Matt Hossack (Port Perry, Ontario/Port Perry) had three ground balls and went 3-of-4 on face-offs. Nick Nebsitt improved to 4-0 in net for RIT, making six saves.

Conor Healey led St. Lawrence with four goals, while Jon Fairbanks and Jordan Dow each had a pair of goals. Charlie Duprey added a goal and two assists, while Andrew Jarrett added a goal and an assist. Ryan Fisher took the loss in net for the Saints, making 10 saves.

Both teams looked to find their rythm offensively in the opening portion of the first quarter. Not until Dow scored off a feed from Duprey at the 11:54 mark of the opening quarter did either team find the back of the net. 

RIT finally broke through with 4:19 to play in the first quarter when Wallace found a cutting Levick and he beat Fisher, tying the score at 1-1. Just 1:08 later, Sterzin took a feed from Ben Tackett (Butler, PA/The Kiski School) and buried his shot, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Jon Fairbanks scored with 26 seconds to play in the quarter, tying the score at 2-2.

The Tigers scored the first two goals of the second quarter, opening up a two-goal lead. Sterzin opened the scoring with his second of the game at 12:47 of the quarter. Vakiener scored on a nice drive from the midfield 31 seconds after Sterzin's goal to make it 4-2 RIT.

Healey broke the run with his goal at 10:54, but the Tigers offense woke up, tacking on two more goals to take a 6-3 lead. Vakiener scored off an assist from Beau Riley (Homer, NY/Homer) at 9:44, and Levick scored off an assist from Lee with 7:08 to play in the half to give RIT a three-goal lead.

The Saints kept within striking distance of the Tigers, answering back with two straight goals. Jeremy Vautour scored with 5:07 to play in the quarter to make it 6-4 RIT. Dow scored his second of the half off an assist from Austin Nadeau with 4:15 to play to make it a 6-5 RIT lead. Sterzin would add a late goal with 26 seconds to play in the half to give the Tigers a 7-5 lead at the break.

RIT came out firing in the third quarter, scoring six goals in the stanza. Levick scored twice, while Sterzin, Lee, Josh Harris (St. Catharines, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) and JD Hall (Centennial, CO/Arapahoe) each scored in the quarter. Levick and Sterzin sandwiched goals around a Vautour goal to open the third quarter scoring.

After a Healey goal made it 9-7 RIT with 11:03 to play in the quarter, Lee scored a man-down goal off an assist from Hossack at 10:56 to give RIT a 10-7 lead. Harris scored off a feed from Sterzin with his long stick at 8:31 of the quarter to extend the Tigers lead to 11-7. 

Andrew Jarrett scored for St. Lawrence with 7:27 to play in the third, but the Tigers closed out the quarter strong, tallying two straight goals to end the period. Hall scored on a nice feed from Wallace with 3:48 to play, and Levick closed out the quarter with a goal with three seonds to play to give RIT a 13-8 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Tosaya scored off a feed from Levick just 49 seconds into the fourth quarter to extend the RIT lead to 14-8. But the Saints responded with a pair of goals from Healey and Dupree to cut the RIT lead to 14-10 with 9:33 to play. Lee tallied a man-up goal off an assist from Sterzin with 9:04 to play to make it 15-10 Tigers.

St. Lawrence was not finished however, as the Saints tallied two late goals. Healy scored with 2:34 to play to make it 15-11, and Fairbanks scored with 1:01 to play to make it 15-12. The Tigers won the ensuing face-off and were able to kill the clock, tallying a late goal with 13 seconds to play to salt the game away.

With the win RIT improves to 22-14 all time versus St. Lawrence. The Tigers return to action on Saturday, April 9 when they host Skidmore College at 1 p.m.