Moon Township, Pa. (April 8, 2015)—The Mount St. Mary's University men's lacrosse team saw an early lead slip away in a 10-7 loss at Robert Morris on Wednesday afternoon.  Mark Hojnoski (West Springfield, Mass.) matched a career high with four goals in the loss.

The Mountaineers (4-7, 1-2 NEC) grabbed the early momentum as Hojnoski posted a natural hat trick in the opening 7:50 of the game to stake the Mount to a 3-0 advantage.  The senior opened the scoring just under three minutes into the game when he broke free after a turnover and beat Robert Morris goalkeeper Chase Rose.   Three minutes later, Hojnoski buried a shot from the outside on a feed from Evan Gormley (Mentor, Ohio) to push the advantage to 2-0.  Hojnoski completed the hat trick when he scored in transition after a Robert Morris turnover with 7:10 left in the first quarter.  Kyle O'Brien (Arnold, Md.) picked up his first career assist on the play.

A weather delay followed Hojnoski's third goal, and Robert Morris (2-9, 1-3 NEC) took the time to regroup.  The Colonials held the Mount off the scoreboard the rest of the half, taking a 5-3 lead at the break.

Carter Yepsen started the rally with a goal with 5:10 left in the first quarter to cut the Mount advantage to 3-1.  Robert Morris continued the momentum by scoring all four goals in the second quarter to take a two-goal lead at the half  Eric Rankel scored back-to-back goals to even the score midway through the second quarter.  Luke Laskiewicz then tallied consecutive goals, the second coming with just four seconds left in the half, to give Robert Morris a 5-3 lead.

Adrian Torok-Orban pushed the lead to 6-3 early in the third quarter before the Mount evened the score with a flurry of goals in a span of 1:19.  Mikey Ripa (Clifton, Va.) made the score 6-4 when he converted a pass from Justin Gosnell (Aberdeen, Md.) with 5:39 remaining in the third.  Gosnell then cut the gap to 6-5 with an unassisted goal at the 4:53 mark of the quarter.  Mike Moynihan (West Islip, N.Y.) tied the game 13 seconds later on a pass from Bubba Johnson (Wyoming, Del.).

Robert Morris snapped the Mount's scoring run with a man-down goal from Sean Doyle just over a minute later to regain the lead at 7-6.  Torok-Orban's second goal of the quarter gave the Colonials a two-goal lead heading to the final quarter.

Laskiewicz and Torok-Orban each completed hat tricks with goals to open the scoring in the final quarter before the Mount's Hojnoski completed the scoring with his fourth goal of the game with 1:17 left.  Hojnoski matched his career high of four goals set last year against Robert Morris.

Robert Morris committed just seven turnovers in the game compared to the Mount's 16 while holding a 40-36 advantage in shots and a 23-21 edge in ground balls. 

Mount's Nick Haley (Ferndale, Md.) won 17-of-21 face-offs while collecting a team-high eight ground balls.  Matt Vierheller (Forest Hill, Md.) made 12 saves for the Mount in the loss. 

Laskiewicz and Torok-Orban each had three goals while Yepsen tallied a goal and three assists in the victory.  Rose made eight saves for the Colonials.

The Mountaineers return to action on Saturday, April 11, when NEC leader Saint Joseph's visits Waldron Family Stadium for a 12:00 p.m. matchup.

Game Notes:  The Mountaineers are 4-4 all-time against Robert Morris, but the Colonials have won the past three meetings…The Mount's last win at RMU was a 16-15 overtime victory in the Northeast Conference semifinals in 2012.

--Mount St. Mary's University Athletics--