The Mount St. Mary's men's lacrosse team used a strong defensive effort paired with some timely scoring to knock off Bryant, 10-7, in the Northeast Conference opener for both teams on Saturday at Waldron Family Stadium. Defensemen Joshua Davies and Bryan McIntosh combined for five caused turnovers and five ground balls in the contest to lead the Mount's defensive unit, which has now held opponents to single-digit goals in three of the last five games. Sophomore goalie Dylan Furnback made 10 saves in the cage and posted a .588 save percentage to collect his fourth win of the season. On the offensive end, Luke Frankeny (2g, 1a) and Joe Bethke (1g, 2a) registered a team-high three points apiece, while Chris DiPretoro and face-off specialist Sam Stephan both added a pair of goals. Mount St. Mary's scored the only two goals of the opening quarter, with both tallies coming from DiPretoro. Furnback made three saves in the period as he and the defense kept the Bulldogs scoreless in the frame. Marc O'Rourke got Bryant on the board just over four minutes into the second quarter to cut the deficit to 2-1. Later in the period, Frankeny and O'Rourke traded goals as the contest remained a one-goal game. Following O'Rourke's tally, Stephan won the face-off for the Mount and took it all the way to the cage where he beat Bryant goalie Luke Caracciolo to make it a 4-2 Mount lead. The ensuing face-off ended with the same result, except this time it was Jack Mangan who scooped up the ground ball off the face-off and took it the distance before firing top shelf to make it a 5-2 game late in the quarter. Bryant's Mason Balch found the back of the net with 1:37 remaining in the half to trim the Mountaineer advantage to 5-3 heading into the break. O'Rourke opened the scoring in the third quarter at the 12:33 mark with his third of the game to bring the Bulldogs back within one. After the goal, Stephan won the face-off cleanly and went straight to goal once again before firing and beating Caracciolo for his second score of the contest. Zach Coffey's tally at the 7:38 mark cut the Mount lead to 6-5, and the Bulldogs were able to hold Mount St. Mary's scoreless for the remainder of the third quarter, as the teams headed into the final period with the Mount leading by one. Balch things up for Bryant at 6-6 early in the fourth on his second goal of the game. The Mountaineers got a man-up opportunity minutes later and were able to capitalize as Brendan Doyle rifled one home just after the penalty time expired but before Bryant could get its defenseman back in position. With Bryant trailing 7-6 with less than seven minutes remaining, the Bulldogs were able to find the equalizer on a man-up opportunity. Kevin Quigley fired a shot that was stopped by Furnback, but after a scramble in front, the loose ball found its way across the line for the game-tying goal. Under a minute later, Bethke worked the ball behind the cage and found Frankeny in front of goal, where he received the pass from Bethke and quickly deposited it to give the Mountaineers an 8-7 lead with 5:45 remaining. Bethke added a key insurance tally with 3:27 left off a feed from Frankeny, and Brenden McCarthy scored another with under a minute remaining, as the Mountaineers went on for the 10-7 victory. The Mount improved to 4-5 overall and 1-0 in the NEC with the win, while Bryant dropped to 2-6 overall and 0-1 in league play. Mount St. Mary's next heads to Robert Morris for a contest on March 23 at 3 p.m.