Philadelphia, Pa. (April 30, 2016)--The Mount St. Mary's University men's lacrosse team closed the 2016 season with a 12-5 loss at Northeast Conference regular season champion Saint Joseph's on Saturday afternoon.  Spencer Smith led the Mountaineers with a pair of goals.

After the Hawks (11-3, 5-1 NEC) took a 3-0 lead in the opening seven minutes of the first half, the Mount got on the scoreboard when Mikey Ripa converted a Matty Yates pass to make it 3-1.  Saint Joseph's, however, scored twice in the final 15 seconds of the first quarter to push the lead to 5-1.

The Hawks added to its lead, scoring twice in a span of 16 seconds to push the lead to 7-1 midway through the second quarter.  The Mount stopped the scoring run when Smith tallied his first goal of the game on a pass from Jack Mangan with 7:14 left in the quarter.  After a Saint Joseph's goal by Kevin Forster, Mark Hojnoski's team-leading 26th goal of the year cut the deficit to 8-3.  The Hawks, however, scored the final two goals of the first half to take a commanding 10-3 advantage.

Will Hendrick scored the lone goal of the third quarter to make it 10-4, and Smith's second goal of the game made it 11-5 early in the fourth. 

Saint Joseph's held a 33-29 edge in shots and a 24-21 advantage in ground balls.  The Hawks won 15-of-20 face-offs in the game.

Smith finished with a pair of goals while Hojnoski added a goal and an assist for the Mount.  Mangan had a solid all-around game with a team-bestt five ground balls and three caused turnovers in addition to his assist. 

Frankie McCarthy made six saves in the first half for the Mount while Matt Vierheller made five saves while allowing just two goals in the second half.

Forster led Saint Joseph's with three goals and an assist while Mike Rastivo (1g, 2a) and Chris Blewitt (2g, 1a) added three-point efforts.  T.J. Jones made 13 saves for Saint Joseph's as well.