Stevenson University used a defense that surrendered just two goals in the second half and a balanced offense to topple No. 18 Christopher Newport 14-8 in non-conference men's lacrosse Wednesday night at Mustang Stadium. Stevenson (4-6) got on the board at the 11:03 mark as JT Thelen took a feed from Will Smith and went behind the back to score. The Mustangs scored three goals in a 38-second span, with a Thelen tally at 8:20 making it 4-0. Smith started the run with a man-up goal at 8:58, then Seth Thornton scored after winning the faceoff nine seconds later. Christopher Newport (8-5) got on the board at the 4:18 mark on Dylan Rice's 34th goal of the season. The Captains trailed 4-2 after one after Spencer Shipman notched his first goal of the season at 2:46. CNU pulled within 4-3 on a man-up tally at the 12:11 mark. Thelen notched his third goal of the contest with 8:52 left in the first half to reclaim a two-goal lead for the Mustangs. Aidan FitzGerald again made it a one-goal game 19 seconds later. Two goals by the Captains 54 seconds apart gave the guests their only lead of the game, 6-5, at the 5:12 mark. Stevenson scored twice in the final 12 seconds of the half to go up 7-6 at intermission. After running an offensive set, Ethan Christensen found a cutting Josh Brannan with 12 seconds left as Brannan scored his first college goal to tie the game. Thornton won the following faceoff, ran down and scored with five seconds left to regain the lead for Stevenson. At the 10:08 mark, a shot by Thelen went wide, but Jacob Tatum was backing up, caught the ball in mid-air, and put in the upper right corner to extend the Mustang lead to 10-8. Goals by Gray McKee at 7:13 and Smith at the 5:30 mark pushed Stevenson's lead to four, 10-6. Christopher Newport scored two goals 59 seconds apart to make it a 10-8 contest with 57 seconds left in the third. The Mustangs went to the fourth holding a two-goal advantage. Shane Ford scored an unassisted tally with 13:06 remaining to make it 11-8. Christensen scored with 11:40 left as Smith found him coming down the middle and fed Christensen perfectly for his first goal of the game. McKee scored with 6:04 left, then Christensen added an empty-net tally with 1:19 to play. The Mustangs blanked the Captains in the frame despite a 9-5 shot advantage for the guests. Both teams recorded 37 shots on the night. Thelen led the Mustangs in the goal column with three, while Smith and Christensen each finished with two goals and two assists. McKee and Thornton each scored twice. Thornton was also 18-23 on faceoffs and had 14 ground balls. Thornton is 51-64 (79.7%) on faceoffs over the last three games. Tatum recorded a goal and two assists, while Ford posted a goal and an assist. Dominic DeFazio led the Stevenson defense with four caused turnovers and six ground balls. Dylan Harris had two caused turnovers as the Mustangs had 11 as a team. Goalie Marc Poust turned aside nine shots and had seven ground balls. As a team Stevenson won 18 of the game's 25 faceoffs and picked up 43 ground balls to 34 for CNU. The Mustangs were 1-2 on man-up chances while holding the Captains to 1-6 with the extra attacker. The win is Stevenson's second over a ranked team this season.