ALLIANCE, Ohio – Working together as a team, Baron lacrosse held their own against a tough and more experienced opponent losing to University of Mount Union 12-4. The Barons saw great improvement on the offense end and played their best game of the season.

"This was the best complete game we've played all year, and the stats played those out," head coach Pete Rosaschi said. We knew this would be our toughest game all year, we hung with these guys beautifully and I'm very proud of my guys."

Mount Union took control of the game from the start scoring two goals six minutes into the first quarter. The Barons followed up with their first goal three minutes later from freshman attack/midfielder Paul Modzelewski. The Raiders scored again but the Barons refused to let them pull away keeping the score within two going into the second quarter after a goal from offensive leader Luke Gilman.

"The guys are coming together on the offense, they're being patient and trusting one another," Rosaschi said. "They took their time and settled in real well. It's very difficult to put an offense together, it takes time, patience and guys have to know each other's movements and what to expect."

The second quarter was costly for the Barons. Franciscan let in three goals defensively and was unable to penetrate the net offensively. Rosaschi said his team had a few breakdowns defensively when the Raiders started cutting around the backside of the net and the Barons were left exposed and unprepared.

"Again this was not enough game time experience," Rosaschi said. "They didn't run anything fancy just cuts from the backside and they ran it well, we just didn't react very well. They only ran it three or four times and that's going to happen in games, we just didn't get it today"

The Barons improved in the second half scoring two more goals but were unable to close the gap completely. Despite losing 12-4 the Barons played one of their strongest games on the season across the board. Franciscan had 24 groundballs on the day and only eighteen turnovers reaching the goal the team had set for themselves.

"That was a tremendous job on both those stats and that's where you win and lose those games mostly," Rosaschi said. "If you're ahead in those stats you usually win and we were on the short side of turnovers by eight and on the short side of groundballs by one."

Offensively freshmen Luke Gilman and Paul Modzelewski were very strong. Gilman had two of the four Baron goals and Modzelewski had one goal and one assist.

"I am very excited with how the guys are working together," Rosaschi said. "Both Luke and Paul are stepping up and playing really well across the board but the other guys on offense have also stepped up and as a team effort help these two do what they do. I'm very proud of how this team has come together."

The Barons return home to play Bryn Athyn College this Saturday April 12, at 1 p.m.