Emmitsburg, Md. (April 23, 2008)--Brendan Harrison (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron) scored the go-ahead goal with 5:01 left to lift Mount St. Mary's past VMI, 11-8, in men's lacrosse action at Waldron Family Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Junior Geery Grant (Blue Point, N.Y./Chaminade) and freshman Dan Mohr (Lederach, Pa./Souderton Area) each tallied hat tricks in the Mount victory.

Trailing 8-7 heading into the final quarter, the Mount (2-10, 2-5 MAAC) scored four straight goals to seal the victory. Mohr tied the game with 6:06 left when he converted a Joe Derwent (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) pass on an extra-man opportunity to knot the game at 8-8. Harrison then gave the Mount its first lead since early in the second quarter when he fired a shot past VMI goalkeeper Sean McCoy with 5:01 on the clock for a 9-8 advantage.

VMI (5-8, 4-3 MAAC) had a chance to tie the score, but Mount keeper T.C. DiBartolo (Bowie, Md./Archbishop Spalding) stopped Tim Moran with 2:28 on the clock. Derwent then put the game out of reach when he scored his ninth goal of the year on a pass from Drew Dunn (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) with 1:15 left. The Mount's Jon Rodrick (Plaistow, N.H./Timberlane Regional) rounded out the scoring with 29 seconds left on an empty cage when VMI was pressing to get the ball back.

The Mount started the game strong, jumping to a 3-1 lead 3:04 into the second quarter. Grant opened the scoring 6:43 into the game when he converted a Mohr pass. VMI squared things up right before the end of the quarter on a Lowell Patterson extra-man tally.

Mohr scored back-to-back goals 1:22 apart in the second quarter to give the Mount a 3-1 advantage before Kevin Hill converted an extra-man chance with 10:53 left in the half to cut the Mount lead to 3-2. VMI then rattled off four goals over the final 4:58 of the half to grab a 6-3 lead. Matt harrison evened the score on a pass from Hill and Brett Leonard's unassisted score one minute later gave the Keydets a 4-3 lead. Jacob Weimer found the back of the cage with 2:23 left in the half and Moran's unassisted tally with 4.9 seconds left in the half gave the Keydets a 6-3 advantage.

Grant opened the scoring in the second half with his second goal of the day on a pass from Patrick Brown (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne), but Moran countered with an extra-man goal to push the margin back to three. Grant and Brendan Harrison tallied back-to-back goals to cut the VMI lead to 7-6 before Moran completed a hat trick with 1:42 left in the third for an 8-6 VMI lead. Freshman Mark Stapor (Herndon, Va./Bishop O'Connell) cut the deficit to 8-7 when he finished a Rodrick pass with 15 seconds left in the third.

The loss prevented VMI from clinching a spot in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament. VMI has not advanced to the MAAC Touranment since joining the league in 2003.

The Mount held a 39-to-27 advantage in shots in the game, including a 20-10 margin in the second half. The Mount scooped up 33 ground balls in the game compared to VMI's 23, and held a 21-11 margin in ground balls in the second half.

Mohr and Grant each finished with three goals and an assist in the game while Derwent chipped in a goal and three helpers. Mohr now leads the Mount with 22 goals while Derwent has a team-best 15 assists. Harrison (2g, 1a) and Rodrick (1g, 2a) each had three-point games for the Mount while Brown chipped in a pair of assists.

Moran paced VMI with three goals and two assists while Hill finished with a goal and two assist.

DiBartolo made nine saves in the game for the Mount while Kevin Walker (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) won 10-of-16 face-offs while collecting a team-best seven ground balls. McCoy made nine saves in the cage for the Keydets.

The Mount returns to action on Saturday, April 26, when Siena visits Waldron Family Stadium for a 1:00 p.m. game. It is the final home game of the season for the Mount.

Game Notes...The Mount improves to 7-0 all-time at home against VMI and holds a 13-2 advantage in the all-time series since the Mount moved to Division I in 1989...The Mount matched a season high with 11 goals in the game...It is just the second time this year the Mount has scored more than seven goals.