STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan men's lacrosse team dropped a tough 18-8 decision to Muskingum, Wednesday afternoon.

Franciscan got on the  board first as sophomore Dan McCartney went unassisted to the cage to give the Barons a 1-0 lead with 9:44 to play. The Muskies answered and scored five-straight goals, including two in the second quarter, to take a 5-1 lead.

Junior Jonas McCaig single-handedly got the Barons to within one goals as he posted a hat trick in a minute and a half from 10:55 to 9:21, including a man up goal, assisted by junior Mike Rosaschi. Muskingum used three-straight goals to push its lead back to 8-4 and were able to keep at least a three-goal difference for the rest of the game. Senior Modzelewski was able to get past the Muskie goal with 3:57 to play to halt the MU run and trim the lead to 8-5. Ian McGougan pushed the Muskingum lead to 9-5 with his man-up goal at 2:45. McCartney ended the first half with a goal at 1:13 to give MU a 9-6 lead going into the break.

The Muskies opened the second half with six-straight goals, including three in the third and three to open the fourth to take a 15-6 lead. Rosaschi put an end to the Muskie run with his only goal of the game off a pass from Modzelewski. After another Muskingum goal, McCartney ended the Barons' scoring with his third of the game to cut the lead to 16-8 with 8:06 to play. Tucker Haas and Ryan Walsh closed out the scoring for the Muskies to give the visitors a 18-8 win.

McCaig and McCartney each had three goals while Modzelewski and Rosaschi each posted a goal and an assist. Freshman Luke Lyons led the Barons with seven ground balls.

Freshman Matt Marrenna made 14 saves in net for the Barons.

After just over a week break, the Barons will return to action when they travel to Alfred State for the opening round of the AMCC tournament.