STEUBENVILLE, Ohio—Franciscan men's lacrosse began to mentally lag from the strain of limited numbers and inexperience in their 28-1 loss to Hanover at home.

The young team, whose originally small numbers have dropped even further, to just fourteen due to injuries, struggled through a difficult 17-1 first half. Winning five ground balls to Hanover's 36 in the first half and going 1-9 in faceoffs, made it impossible for FUS to gain adequate possession time to score.

Head coach Pete Rosaschi said this setback, partially due to the absence of faceoff man and second leading scorer, Mark Hanlon, was insurmountable for the Barons.

"We have such a good faceoff guy that we always know we have that advantage, but when we lose him, we've lost the offensive advantage and the ability to just slow it down and pass it around because we have enough guys," Rosaschi said. "Now everyone's on edge all the time because there's no aspect of the game where you can say, 'hey we have an advantage.'"

As the Barons finished out the half, sophomore middie Paul Modzelewski scored the team's only goal of the day, splitting three defenders in a full sprint before putting a bouncer past the keeper. The energy from this success carried them into a grueling second half in which Hanover scored another 11 goals.

"When you have a small team, it's mental fatigue at this point. We just have no one to sub in," Rosaschi said. "We've been living on the edge the whole season, now it's just starting to show."

Though the Barons began to succumb to sheer exhaustion, Rosaschi said they never gave up. Senior substitute face-off man Peter Herrmann continued to push for every opportunity for possession, winning 8-27 face-offs, taking four shots, and snagging five groundballs. Goalie Jonah Soucy finished the game saving 16 out of 28 faced shots.

"I thought Peter was great and Jonah, again, every article could be about Jonah. But overall, we lose these games but these guys, they don't quit," Rosaschi said. "They are a great bunch of guys. Believe it or not there's the making of some great lacrosse players here, we just don't have enough right now."

With just three games left in their season, Rosaschi said the way to stay positive is to continue looking to improve and building skill sets for next year's success.

"A lot of it's just experience, it's just getting them out there, getting them in the right position," Rosaschi said. "And it's tough, but we have to stay motivated and work on moving our program forward."

The Barons will next face Walsh College on Tuesday, April 21 at 6pm.