PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Plattsburgh State men's lacrosse team beat Mount Saint Mary Knights 7-3 in a non-conference victory on Sunday afternoon and picked up their first win of the season. Senior attackman John Eiseman (Farmingville, N.Y. / Sachem East) led the Cardinals' attack with four points, scoring the Cardinals' first two goals of the game and also picking up two assists.

Other goal scorers for the Cardinals were Donald Woods (Rocky Point, N.Y. / Rocky Point), who has scored in back-to-back games, Chris Falborn (Nanuet, N.Y. / Nanuet), which was the first goal of his collegiate career, Anthony Faber (Farmingdale, N.Y. / Farmingdale), who has also picked up a goal in back-to-back games, Logan Jones (Bayport, N.Y. / Bayport-Blue Point) and Kyle Ruland (Medford, N.Y. / Patchogue-Medford). Jones also had two assists for the Cardinals, while Woods, senior Cam Morin (Raynham, Mass. / Bridgewater-Raynham), and first-year Jaime Gipe (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C.W. Baker), his first assist and point of his collegiate career, picked up assists as well. Ruland also led the Cardinals in ground balls with six while Kevin Murray (Bellmore, N.Y. / Kellenberg Memorial) and Fynn Whitlock (Middlebury, Vt. / Middlebury) tied with five.

For the Knights, Joe Keating led the team with two goals and Hayden Mitchell scored a goal as well.

Plattsburgh won the shot battle 36-23 but was unsuccessful on special teams only going 1-8 on extra man-up opportunities as were the Knights who were 0-4 on extra man-up opportunities. The Cardinals were quick to lose balls beating out the Knights with 44 ground balls to 35 but lost the faceoff battle 8-6. The Cardinals were efficient on clearing attempts going 28-33 while the Knights went 25-35.

Plattsburgh rises to 1-1 and next hosts Canton on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 4 pm. Mount Saint Mary falls to 0-1 and next hosts Marywood University on Saturday, March 2 at 4 pm.

The Knights struck first, as Mitchell scored nearly halfway through the first period while Eiseman responded a minute later with a goal off a Morin pass that drew both teams even at 1. It was Eiseman again as he scored the last goal of the period off a Gipe pass with 2:37 remaining in the first and gave the Cardinals a 2-1 advantage after one.

The Cardinals held strong in the second as senior goalie Dan Clements (Putnam Valley, N.Y. / Putnam Valley) turned away three shots in the second and held the Knights scoreless while the Cardinals got two more goals on the board. Faber buried a man-up opportunity off the pass from Jones at the 6:30 mark. Just about a minute later it was another pass from Jones that led to a Cardinal goal, this time the Cardinals were a man down and it was off the stick of Ruland. The Cardinals went into halftime up 4-1.

There wasn't much action in the third as there was one goal scored by the Cardinals as Mount Saint Mary sophomore goalie Kenny Leen stopped four Cardinal shots. The lone goal of the period came from Falborn off a dish from Eiseman at the end of the period with 1:04 remaining and gave the Cardinals a 5-1 lead going into the final quarter.

It was Eiseman again as he was creating opportunities for his teammates and passed it off to Woods for the first goal of the fourth at the 8:28 mark that made the score 6-1 Cardinals. After being held scoreless for two periods, the Knights got back on the board with an unassisted goal from Keating nearly 30 seconds later. With less than five minutes remaining Jones scored the Cardinals' last goal off a Woods pass while Keating scored the final goal of the game for the Knights and the Cardinals went on to win 7-3.

Clements finished the game with eight saves in the win for Plattsburgh while Leen made 14 saves in the loss for Mount Saint Mary.